


Avengers: Age of Ultron Take Two

by zephsomething



Series: Rewriting MCU [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-06-03 00:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6589039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I rewrote age of Ultron so if you, like me, were disappoint, annoyed, angry, and frustrated at everything this movie ended up being feel free to read mine instead. Enjoy (or don't, you could even write your own perhaps)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Good Talk

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Age of Ultron the first time and was mildly put out and then I watched it a second time when I wasn't so exhausted and I was fuckin furious for what this movie could have been and wasn't by a long shot and someone (jokingly) suggested I write it and then I agreed and now here we are seven months later with a half made script and the beginnings of a totally different story line.

Tony wasn’t sure if Hydra had known they were coming or if this base just had significantly better scouts than the last dozen they’d attacked, but either way it wasn’t really important. What was important was that they were now taking fire from almost every side, and there was no way this was just going to be a quiet in and out raid like they’d hoped.

He spun out of the way as someone fired at him, shooting upwards as Hulk charged past him and into the crowd that had been firing at him.

“Try to keep em alive, you know how the little guy hates killing.” Tony called out. They’d tried once to give Hulk a comm unit, and it was not an experiment they wanted to repeat.

Hulk roared out something Tony took as a confirmation that he’d heard him before taking off into the woods in more or less the direction they were supposed to be going.

Tony paused a moment in the air above the fight, just in time to see Steve flip off his motorbike and throw the thing at someone. He’d apparently stopped thinking about how much all this cost. Tony wasn’t sure whether to be pleased about that or not.

Thor threw lighting and landed on the taller gun towers to knock people off and Tony couldn’t get eyes on either Natasha or Clint but they could handle themselves, he was sure. He tried to shrug off the nagging worry and focus on his own portion of the mission. Dropping out of the sky and back into the battle helped a little, made him focus more on not getting shot at least.

Once he was back in the thick of things he noticed Nat and Clint for a moment, working off each other like they often did. He didn’t know where they’d gotten the turret car and honestly he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

“Stark! Get into that base while we keep them busy.” It was Steve’s voice over the comms but Tony didn’t bother trying to figure out where in the battle he’d ended up.

“Alright Rogers, I’m going, I just gotta shake a few of these soldiers that are shooting at me first.”

“Need a hand Stark?” Was the only warning Tony got to get out of the way before Natasha drove herself and Clint past him and into the group of soldiers, most of whom scattered, that were shooting at him.

“Thanks.” Tony nodded in her direction before he flew past the others. He shot up out of the woods again, this time in the direction of the base, and fired an experimental shot at one of the many towers of the Hydra base. It hit a force field sending off sparks and a ripple effect along the force field. “Shit.”

“Language.” Steve’s voice came over the comms and Tony rolled his eyes. “Jarvis what can you tell us?”

“There is some kind of energy shield, it surrounds the entire base.” Jarvis paused for a moment, scrolling through backlogs no doubt. “This level of technology is well above any other Hydra base we’ve taken.”

“The scepter must be here!” It was Thor over the comms this time as Tony circled the base trying to think up a way through the force field.

“Good, if we can get it now that should put a big dent in Hydra.” Steve didn’t say it, but Tony could hear the implication of maybe getting a bit of a break if they finally reclaimed the damn scepter.

“So are we not going to talk about how Capt. just said language?” Tony could barely contain the laughter as he checked the base for other ways in or a weak spot in the shield.

“Sorry, habit.” And Tony couldn’t tell if the slight inflection in Steve’s voice was a lie or pain.

“Yeah you were the nerdy kid weren’t you?” He knew the joke would fall flat even as Tony said it but it was better than saying nothing.

“Says the one who builds robots in his basement.” Steve’s reply was nearly instant and Tony chuckled.

“Excuse you I was a geek not a -”

“Save it boys, we can discuss the difference between geeks and nerds later, focus on not dying right now.” Clint’s voice joined in for the first time that fight and Tony rolled his eyes.

The conversation stopped though while those on the ground followed Clint’s advice and focused on not dying and Tony tried to figure out the energy shield. Tony completed another fly around and came up with zilch for weak spots on the damn thing, just as the defence systems finally activated and he was suddenly dodging sprays of bullets.

“Sir, the city is taking fire.” Jarvis’s voice jarred him enough to think about something other than the bullets flying towards him.

“Send in the Iron Legion.” He dropped nearly straight down to avoid another spray of bullets and glared at the force field. Shit, that was it. “Jarvis do you see a power source for that thing?”

There was a buzzing noise as Jarvis scanned the field. “Below the north tower.”

“Great,” Tony brought his weapons system up and powered up his stronger missiles, rather than the laser he’d used as a testing shot earlier. “I want to poke it with something.”

“We’ve an enhanced in the field.” Came through the comms in Clint’s voice, followed by a noise of pain and Tony pushed the worry to the back of his mind for the moment. Right now he needed to concentrate.

“Clint’s hit!” Natasha’s voice came over the comms at a pitch he rarely heard from her as Tony’s suite finished powering up. “Someone take out that damn gun.” There was a pause and even Tony saw the parts of the gun tower fly, he was sure that was Hulk’s work. “Thanks.”

“Stark anytime you want to get rid of that field would be nice.” Steve’s voice came through loud and clear.

Tony didn’t bother answering, just got himself into position and fired at the target Jarvis had so helpfully lit up on his screen. Several missiles in a row and the first three blasted a hole through the force field for just long enough for the others to hit the power source. The field collapsed with an audible fizzling noise.

“The enhanced?” Thor’s voice over the comms had Tony wondering when exactly they’d figured out how to concentrate on so many things at once as he landed on the base. He changed his shots from settings that would kill to those that would stun and started taking out hostiles.

“He’s a blur, everything we’ve faced and I’ve never seen this,” There was a pause but it was Clint’s voice so at least whatever hit he’d taken hadn’t killed him. Stubborn bastard. “In fact I still haven’t.”

“I’ll get Barton back to the jet, the sooner we leave the better,” Thor spoke in that I’m in charge tone he usually did despite the fact that Capt. was supposed to be in charge, damn Asgardians. “Widow and Stark can you two secure the sceptre?”

“Course.” Two voices over the comms always sounded weird, even if one of them was his.

“Perfect, I’ll get Banner. Meet you all back on the jet.” The easy agreement came from Capt. and Tony disconnected from the comms as he flew through glass into what looked like the main control room of the base. The instant spray of bullets wasn’t enough to even dent his suite and he grinned at everyone despite the fact that they couldn’t see him. “Now now guys, let’s talk this out.” He fired a dozen of the stun level shots out, mostly hitting arms or legs, stun or not one of those shots to the chest could very well kill someone. “Good talk.”

“No it wasn’t.” The growl was heavily accented English but as no shots followed Tony stepped out of his suite and left it in sentry mode.

“Jarvis gimmie a quick scan of the room?” He pulled a drive into the computer as he spoke and started downloading any files that hadn’t been erased.

“Wall to your left, I’m reading steel reinforcements, and an air current.”

“You know what to do Jarvis, I want it all.” He tapped the drive before walking away. He approached the wall with childlike enthusiasm. “Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door.” He nearly clapped when a push caused the wall to rumble backwards, then to the side. The now open doorway revealed a set of stairs. Not super creative but secret doors were cool regardless.

\- - - - - - -

Hulk is throwing trees and the remainder of a gun tower around when Steve finds him. It’s the sound of rocks bouncing off his shield that makes Hulk turn towards him the roar fizzling out to an irritable huff when he sees who it is.

“Hey Hulk.” Steve nods walking into the Hulk created clearing. “The fight’s over Hulk, time to stand down.”

There was a low rumble from Hulk, almost a growl but Steve was used to it by now. That was just how Hulk responded to things he didn’t want to agree with.

“We’ve talked about this. Who’s in charge here?” Steve frowned crossing his arms. The thought crossed him mind that before he’d gone into the ice he’d excepted to one day be using this voice on his kids.

Hulk looked around for a moment before pointing at Steve, not particularly happy about it but accepting none the less.

“And is the little guy in any danger?”

That rumble Steve had learned was more or less Hulk’s way of agreeing.

“Exactly, so stand down. Get some rest, you’ve done your job.” It only took a moment for the Hulk to shrink back into Banner and Steve handed him a coat. “Welcome back Banner, let’s get you to the jet.”

Banner just nodded and let Steve lead him. This too, Steve had gotten used to. After changing back into himself Banner was even less likely to respond than the Hulk was, he’d be better, well more responsive anyway, after some music and alone time.

\- - - - - - -

It hadn’t taken long at all to get into the base once Stark got in, the trail of stunned or out of commission people he left behind him made it obvious which direction he’d gone in, so Natasha went in a different one. Most people had fled already, but at the end of one hall a guard stood outside a doorway; Natasha could list at least thirty things he was doing wrong.

The guard was easy to take out, honestly she doubted he was even properly trained with the way he was standing and only looking in one direction. A quick hit to the neck and he dropped like a sack of bricks. Natasha was around the corner before the guard even hit the ground. The man who turned to look at her, trying to hide that he was startled could only be one person. “Strucker.”

“Romanoff.” The smile he gave her was probably supposed to be charming but Natasha had seen far too many of those smiles result in dodging knifes to be moved.

“Where’s the sceptre?”

“You’ll mention I cooperated of course?” Natasha almost wanted to laugh, he sounded like he thought she’d be willing to bargain with him.

“Sure right under human experimentation.” She fixed him with a stare that no doubt looked blank to him, few would be able to read the anger there. Even less would know just how personally she took it when people experimented on humans, or why. "How many did you make?”

The footsteps behind her were so quiet she almost missed them. She turned in time to see a flash of red and the face of a girl who looked younger than Natasha would have liked. She grunted as her brain suddenly stopped communicating with her legs and she fell to her knees. She was up again in moments but the girl was already passed her and through a door that sparked red as it slammed behind her. Strucker was apparently not nearly as smart as the girl as he hadn’t taken the chance to run. Natasha decided not to hold the attack against the girl, it had only lasted long enough for her to escape after all.

Hand to her ear Natasha sent the warning out over the comms regardless. Holding it against the girl or not she couldn’t leave her team unprepared. “Second enhanced in the field, female, be careful."

“Do not engage.” Capt.’s response was immediate and Natasha turned back to the problem at hand. At least that would stop anyone from trying to hurt the girl.

“You’ll have to be faster tha-” He was cut off when her hand hit his neck, just enough to shut him up. Natasha was in even less of a mood to listen to him than before. She immobilized him easily and picked him up over her shoulder. S.H.I.E.L.D., the new one that was being rebuilt slowly from the ashes, would want him.

“Widow’s heading back to the jet. I’ve got Strucker.”

\- - - - - - -

Wanda watched as Iron Man, without his suit, came down a set of stairs. He’d managed to find the room full of technology that had been created with the sceptre. Honestly she was almost impressed.

“I’ve got something better.” He looked around at the room apparently speaking to someone over a communication device of some sort.

She could just barely hear someone saying something about it not being competition but Iron Man didn’t appear to be paying attention. That seemed typical. He was just walking towards the sceptre while Wanda debated whether or not to let him take it.

“Thor, I’ve got eyes on the prize.” He had to be talking about the sceptre so Wanda stepped towards him and let her red mist enter his mind waking his subconscious and bringing his greatest fears to the forefront. She stepped back to let his fears take hold. What they saw would determine her next move.

She watched from his mind’s eye as the alien structure behind them came to life in his mind flying overhead. They were on an asteroid of sorts, from here they could see Earth; Wanda would have loved the view if it wasn’t for the obviously attacking aliens making their way towards it. As it was the view inspired equal parts awe and fear. There was a noise behind them and they turned to see the Avengers dead or dying behind them, spread out across the rock they stood on. There were more aliens behind them. Stumbling a few steps forward they fell to Captain America’s side, she could feel how distraught Iron Man was but the feelings were distant.

“You could have done more…” These were dying words of Captain America in Iron Man’s fear vision and Wanda almost wanted to laugh.

The vision started to fade around them and she stepped back into the shadows. Iron Man called his suit to him and picked up the sceptre as Pietro came to a stop beside her.

“You’re just going to let them take it?” His voice was a mix of offended and confused and all she had the energy to do was grin as Iron Man left with the sceptre. Once they were alone Pietro looked at her again an eyebrow raised. “You have a plan?”

“He’s going to tear himself apart.” Her grin widened a little and Pietro picked her up careful to cushion her head before he took off again. There would be others here soon and they did not need to be caught again.

\- - - - - - -

Steve ran a hand through his hair as he looked around at the team. The fight had been harder than they’d been expecting, at least until Banner joined in. As soon as Steve thought about him he glanced over and winced. Banner always took fights worse, or at least more obviously so, than the rest of them. He was all huddled up in a corner and listening to music. Steve went over and tapped his knee. “Hulk gets better at listening to orders every time we fight together.”

Banner looked up at him nodding a little as he slipped the headphones off. “I just wasn’t expecting a code green this time around.”

“You helped, without the hulk there there would have been more casualties, probably including Barton.” Steve sighed. “You're going to have to trust us eventually.”

Banner shook his head and gestured at himself. “It’s the other guy I don’t trust."

“Thor?” Steve turned to look towards where Thor was standing next to the sceptre's case. “Report on the Hulk.”

“The gates of Helheim are filled with the screams of his victims.” Thor’s grin wavered as Banner put his hands over his face and groaned and then Thor was clearing his throat and backtracking. “Err, but not the screams of the dead of course, no uh mostly whimpering, a great deal of complaining of, ah sprains and deltoids and …. Gout…”

Natasha’s laughter was barely held back as Thor looked sheepish for a moment before going back to looking at the sceptre. Steve let himself ponder for a second which of them he wanted to hit more and was almost glad when Tony’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Banner Dr. Cho is on her way in from Sol, it alright if she sets up in your lab?” Tony called from the pilot’s seat momentarily distracting Banner as Steve stood up.

“Yeah she’s welcome to it, she should know her way around it already.” Banner nodded leaning back against the wall again.

Tony nodded and signed off with Hill before he stood up. “Jarvis take the wheel please.”

“Of course sir.”

“Looks good doesn’t it?” Tony tapped the glass container the sceptre lay in as he came to stand with Steve and Thor. “We’ve been hunting this thing since S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed. Not that I haven’t enjoyed our little raiding parties.”

“Yes, this, this brings it to a close.” Thor nodded not looking up from the Sceptre.

“As soon as we find out what it was used for, and I don’t just mean weapons.” Steve interjected frowning down at the case. "Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?”

“Banner and I will give it the once over before it goes back to Asgard. That cool with you?” Tony paused for a moment to look at Thor who nodded after a pause. “Just a few days, until the farewell party. You are staying right?”

“Yes, yes of course.” Thor nodded again a smile forming. “Victory should be honoured with revels.”

“Yeah who doesn’t love revels, Captain?” The grin on Tony’s face had Steve nodding immediately.

“Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and Hydra so yes, revels.”

It wasn’t long after that that the jet landed at the tower, Dr. Cho was on and wheeling Barton off before they’d even fully landed. Nat followed close behind her and Banner left the jet as well.

“Lab’s all set up boss.” Was as close to a greeting as they were going to get from Hill as she stepped onto the Jet.

“Actually he’s the boss.” Tony jerked a thumb towards him and Steve resisted the urge to smack him. He settled for glaring at him. "I just pay for everything and design everything and make everyone look cooler.”

“Word on Strucker?” Steve asked getting up from where he’d sat during landing and following Hill down off the Jet and into the tower.

“NATO got him.”

“And the enhanced?” They were of more concern to Steve than Strucker was, gods only knows what they’d be up to with Strucker in custody.

“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They’re Romani twins, orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building. They were born in Sokovia, it’s had a tough history." Hill shrugged reading almost directly off the file on her tablet.

“And their abilities?”

“He’s got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, and mental manipulation.” Apparently his confusion must have shown on his face because Hill continued. “He’s fast and she can mess with your mind.”

“Well they’ll show up again I’m sure of it.” He pressed the button for the elevator as they got to it.

“Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker’s experiments. It’s nuts.”

“Files say a lot of things.” Steve shrugged as he stepped onto the elevator. “They were kids on their own, I’m not sure volunteered is the right word.”

The doors closed before Hill had a chance to come up with a response to that.

\- - - - - - -

Tony left Clint and Natasha in the lab with Dr. Cho while he went to grab them all drinks. There wasn’t a lot for him to do there, he wasn’t good at offering comfort and the technology wasn't one he was familiar with.

“How is he?” Bruce asked quietly going in the opposite direction as Tony.

“Well unfortunately, he’s still Barton.” Tony shrugged earning a chuckle from Bruce.

“Terrible.”

“He’s fine, just thirsty.” Tony shrugged heading down to his own lab as Bruce continued into his re-purposed lab. “Alright Jarvis look alive. We’ve only got a few days with this joystick, let’s make the most of it. Update on the structural and compositional analysis?”

“The sceptre is alien, there are elements I can’t quantify.”

“So there’s elements you can?” He jumped on the wording as he made his way around his lab pulling up a display of what Jarvis had so far on the sceptre and trying to decide what to get the lot of them for drinks.

“The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside, something powerful.” Jarvis flipped over the displays until he found the one he wanted and Tony tried to make sense of his notes on it.

“Like a reactor?”

“Like a computer, I believe I’m deciphering code.”

“Huh.” Tony walked closer to the display and flicked through the file of what Jarvis had found so far before closing it. “Yeah we can work with that.”

The slushy machine Tony had made years ago made a noise and that decided what he was bringing back to everyone. There was no one he’d met that didn’t like slushies. It only took moments for him to get a cup of slushy for each person currently in the lab and head back. Before he even reached the door he could hear them talking.

“You sure he’s going to be okay?” That was Widow, laughter back in her voice though the strain wasn’t quite gone yet. “Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together.”

“There’s no possibility of deterioration, the nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don’t know they’re bonding with simulacrum.” Tony wondered if Dr. Cho realized she was doing the techno babble thing or if she just assumed they would all know exactly what she was saying.

“She’s creating tissue!!” That was Bruce sounding extremely excited, as he usually did when talking about shit like this.

“If you’d brought him to the regen cradle we could have done this in 20 minutes.” Dr. Cho was chuckling as Tony made it into the room again with the drinks.

“I come bearing drinks for the dying man.” Tony grinned around at everyone and held out the tray.

“No no no, I’m gunna live forever!” Clint grinned up at him as he handed over the slush. “I’m going to be made of plastic!”

“You will be made of you Mr. Barton.” Dr. Cho chuckled waving off the slush as she checked on the machine again. “Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” Clint smirked slightly looking over at Natasha who snickered and tried to hide it behind her slush. Tony had long since decided he was never going to understand those two.

“That I can’t fix.” Dr. Cho shrugged and turned back towards the lot of them again, grinning at Tony in a way that was almost competitive. "This is the next thing Tony, your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust.”

“That’s always the hope isn’t it?” Tony grinned back, he’d never felt any competition with her and Bruce’s line of work. Honestly he did hope that eventually all his suites could retire and so could he, once the world was safe again. “Helen, can I expect to see you at the party?”

“Unlike you I don’t have a lot of time for parties.” She sniffed then paused slightly and looked up again. “Will Thor be there?”

Tony held back a laugh as he nodded. The party was shaping up to be quite the night.


	2. Peace in Our Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony passes on a Bright Idea or The littlest changes cause the biggest fallout

“What now Tony?” Bruce asked as he walked into the lab, he stopped near the door and had to blink a few times. Tony’s lab was never exactly _clean_ but it was usually at least tidy. Now however it was a mess; packets of print outs spilled across tables and dozens of Tony’s little electronic files were scattered amongst the paper. No wonder no one had seen Tony outside of the Lab in the last day or so, he probably hadn’t even eaten.

“Well, the scepter, you see- we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive so we’ve been analyzing the gem inside.” Tony gestured between him and the computer monitor, then he picked up one of his files and tapped it. Jarvis seemed to slip out of the file and expand until his yellow orb of connections was nearly the size of a mini fridge. “I’m sure you’ll recognize?”

“Jarvis.” Bruce nodded at Jarvis a small smile on his face. It always felt weird talking to Jarvis when he didn’t have a visible form in the room.

“Doctor.” Jarvis puffed out a bit before relaxing, his own version of a nod.

“When we started out Jarvis was just a natural language VI, now he runs the Iron legion.” Tony smiled in Jarvis’s direction looking proud more than anything, as though Jarvis had somehow managed that himself. “He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper. Top of the line.”

“Yes?” Bruce interrupted. He figured Tony was going somewhere with this but he might get caught in a circle of thought where he just talked about how awesome Jarvis was rather than actually getting to the point.

“I suspect not for long.” Jarvis said tilting slightly towards one of the electronic files which Tony then picked up.

“Meet the competition.” Tony did the same thing that had brought Jarvis’s visible form into the room with this file. What expanded out of this one was blue and larger than Jarvis. That wasn’t the most interesting part though, the connections didn’t move in the same way that Jarvis’s did, along pre-approved paths. Instead seeming to dance between each other creating new paths as they went.

“It’s beautiful.” Bruce moved further into the room, stepping around Jarvis to examine the blue one more closely.

“If you had to guess?” Tony gestured towards it but Bruce only barely saw the gesture out of the corner of his eyes.

“It’s thinking,” Bruce gestured to the sparks flying between lines of what had to be code, making new connections and pathways. “I mean this could be, it’s not a human mind exactly but…”

Tony made a noise that sounded like both agreement and encouragement.

“I mean look at them,” Bruce gestured again before actually turning to look back at Tony. “They’re like neurons firing.”

“Down in Strucker’s lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work.” Tony shrugged when Bruce raised his eyebrows. “They deep sixed the data but I’d guess he was knocking on a very particular door.”

“Artificial intelligence.” Bruce nodded looking back at the blue orb.

“This could be it Bruce!” Tony sounded so excited Bruce couldn’t resist looking back at him, he was just on the verge of grinning, still trying to be serious in case he needed to convince Bruce. “This could be the key to creating Ultron.”

“I always thought he was a fantasy.” Bruce ran a hand through his hair. Ultron, the AI who could replace them altogether, take over the super hero gig for them and protect the world from any threat.

“Yesterday, yeah.” Tony nodded and gestured towards the blue orb. “But if we can harness this? Apply it to my Iron Legion protocols?”

“That’s a pretty big if Tony.”

“Our job is to deal with if.” Tony grinned at him. “We’re scientists Bruce! Besides wouldn’t it be nice if you could be sipping margaritas on a sun drenched beach somewhere turning brown instead of green? Not have to be worrying about Veronica?”

“Don’t hate Tony, I helped you create Veronica.” Bruce sighed. Veronica had been a good idea, a way to stop Hulk if he got out of control again. “Veronica is a good addition to your team. Just in case the worst happens and no one’s able to get to the big guy.”

“Yeah Veronica is good for a worst case scenario.” Tony’s hand wave was almost dismissive. “What about best case? What if the world was safe? What if next time the aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn’t get past the bouncer?”

“The only people threatening the planet would be people.” Bruce nodded slightly, it would be nice, not having to worry as much. People could only do so much after all.

“I want to apply this to the Ultron program but Jarvis can’t download a data schematic this dense.” Tony’s hands were going full motion now, half of it actual signs he’d picked up from Barton and half of it just excited gesturing. “We can only do it while we have the scepter here. We’ve got three days, give me three days.”

“So you’re going to go for Artificial intelligence and you don’t want me to tell the rest of the team?” Bruce asked as it suddenly clicked why Tony would call him in on this, he was probably the only one around who’d be able to understand if he saw what Tony was doing, or at least the only one who’d actually hung around Tony’s lab so soon after a mission.

“We don’t have _time_ for the debate it will cause.” Tony nodded his face a mix of a trademark Tony ‘I know I’ve won’ smirk and the ‘please don’t prove me wrong’ twinkle that hid so easily behind his outwardly confident facade. “I don’t want to hear the ‘man wasn’t mean to meddle’ speech from the dude who’s been stuck in an iceberg for forty years again. I can see a suit of armor around the world.”

“Sounds like a cold world Tony.”

“I’ve seen colder.” His eyes went distant for a moment as his mind drifted to darker and far off places. “This very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron.” He shrugged and turned back towards the blue orb with a small smile. “Peace in our time, imagine that.”

Bruce sighed and walked over to flick the coffee pot on. He could feel Tony’s eyes trailing him, like he didn’t already know that Bruce almost never said no to him. He turned to look over at Tony. “Guess it’s going to be a long three days then?”

“Yeah! I knew you’d see reason.” Tony grinned and turned to his computer. “We can do this, I know we can.”

Turning towards one of the other computers Bruce got to work as well. As he’d figured no one else ever bothered to actually come see what they were working on, Barton and Widow had disappeared off to whatever corner of the tower it was they hid in between mission, Capt. avoided the labs as a rule, and with Pepper busy with meetings in another country there was no one else who was willing to interrupt a working Tony.

36 hours in according to the clock the lines of code started to blur together and Bruce had to opt out for a nap, losing control in the tower seemed like a bad idea. Coffee was not a friend to those sharing their head with someone who flew into a rage at the slightest irritation.

42 hours and Tony’s mumbling about not enough data was enough to wake Bruce up. He walked over and knocked his knuckles against Tony’s head. “What’s the issue?”

“The data, it’s running? I think. Or hiding maybe.” Tony frowned at the screen and ran the interface again, another error. “It’s taunting me.”

“Tony have a nap.” Bruce shunted his chair towards the couch.

“But you’re sleeping.” The frown changed slightly, realization trickling in around the edges. “I should maybe be sleeping.”

“I’ll keep running it, you can’t run only on caffeine.” Bruce shook his head and turned to the computer. Code wasn’t exactly his usual thing but he could try tweaking it a bit. It didn’t take long until he was lost in the lines of code again.

“I know!” The sudden shout from Tony’s place on the couch had Bruce jolting as he turned around. Tony sat up a grin splitting his face as he got up and leaned over Bruce to start typing. “Pym sent me stuff ages ago I just have to tweak it all again and it’ll work.”

“The ant guy?” Bruce pulled away from the computer to give Tony room blinking a little as he watched him work.

“Yeah, Antman, the first one.” Tony nodded distractedly. “Friend of my dad’s, sort of anyway, sent me a bunch of info from back in the day. It’ll take a bit to explain though.”

“Don’t bother.” Bruce waved a hand and got up. “I’ll make coffee.”

In the end Bruce made food as well, there wasn’t much else he could do to help Tony at this point, it was all just coding variations anyway. So he left food and coffee beside Tony, reminded Jarvis to stop Tony from being late to his own party, and headed off. There was still ten or twelve hours until the party but he needed to sleep and shower before he’d feel able to so much as look at people again let alone actually interact with them.

A few hours before the party Jarvis started nagging until Tony went and showered and put nice, and more importantly, clean clothes on. Tony went immediately back to trying to get the code to run properly and then a few hours later, just like that, three days had passed and Tony was out of time. Tony stared as once again the program went from 99% to error. “What did we miss??”

“I will continue to run variations on the interface but you should probably prepare for your guests.” Jarvis was doing his worried thing, blinking slowly where his visible form was still floating next to the blue orb. “I’ll notify you if there are any developments.”

“Thanks buddy.” Tony nodded rubbing the back of his neck as he left the lab and headed towards the living space. Trying to switch from work mode to entertaining mode.

“Enjoy yourself sir.” Jarvis’s voice had no problem reaching him and he nodded again.

By the time Tony made his way down the stairs to what could for all intents and purposes be called the living room, or the entertaining room, or something along those lines. Honestly there were too many rooms in the tower to name them all accurately without Pepper. In any case it was one of the largest rooms, complete with couches and the bar.

“Bar is fully stocked, and we cleaned the place.” Natasha’s voice broke through Tony’s thoughts as he stepped off the stairs. He looked up to see Natasha sitting on one of the bar stools, Clint perched on the back of a nearby couch, and Bruce just setting down a book on one of the side tables.

“You-?” Tony started but Bruce cut him off.

“You were busy.” Bruce shrugged smiling up at him as he walked over to stand between the bar and the couch.

“Plus we got bored.” Natasha shrugged sending a smirk in Clint’s direction. “We ran out of things to do.”

“And Bruce here insisted that we help him help you.” Clint grinned with an innocence Tony was absolutely certain he didn’t possess.

“Should I expect things to explode or rain arrows when the guests show up or?” Tony looked between the three of them with suspicion that was mostly joking but honestly he wouldn’t be that surprised if he was correct anyway.

“Come on Stark, we’re not out to get your guests.” Natasha’s grin wasn’t exactly reassuring but Tony just shrugged, he was glad he didn’t have to do all the cleanup and set up himself.

“Besides I feel like if we tried to prank one of your guests we might end up starting a war.” Clint chuckled leaning so far back Tony though he might fall off the back of the couch.

“Gods know we’ve got enough of those already.” Tony grinned back.

By the time guests started to arrive Natasha was behind the bar, Tony was at the door, and Bruce and Clint were grinning as people came in. For the most part it was just friends but as with most of Tony’s parties there were plenty there who were simply contacts from his publicity days, or friends of a friend. Thor had come of course, showed up just before the guests started arriving. Steve came down from whatever part of the building he’d been hiding in just in time to be polite. He shared a grin with Natasha before slipping into full Capitan America mode for the guests. There were plenty of their friends there of course; Dr Cho had managed to get time away from her clinic, Rhodey and Hill both found their party clothes and showed up, and Sam arrived eventually too, though he stuck close to Steve for the most part. However many more of the guests were only well known to one or two of the avengers. There were some older war folks who Steve had known back in the day, some people Steve had befriended from SHIELD before it fell, a few science friends of Dr Cho and Bruce, and many of Tony’s acquaintances. Only the spies and Thor hadn’t invited anyone. Most of them of course had no idea what exactly the party was celebrating but it was a well-accepted practice that if Tony was buying people showed up.

\- - - - - - -

“You look comfortable back there.” Hill asked raising an eyebrow at Natasha and taking a seat at the bar.

“I like knowing what’s going into my drinks.” Natasha grinned, it felt too sharp on her cheeks, a dozen metaphors of glass and porcelain ran through her head and she ignored them. Part of her whispered about hiding her weaknesses but she’d long since given up trying to play herself off around teammates. For the most part they were all too well trained not to notice the details no matter how well she tried to hide them anyways.

“Gotta enjoy the little things in life.” Hill grinned back, her grin almost as sharp as Natasha’s though it didn’t look as fragile as Natasha’s felt.

“I can drink to that.” Natasha grinned mixing a drink for the both of them, she handed one to Hill. “To the little things.”

\- - - - - - -

“So you’re telling me that none of the other girls could make it?” Dr. Cho crossed her arms raising one eyebrow elegantly at Tony who held his hands up, looking a little defensive.

“Well Pepper’s halfway round the world making deals and intimidating her way through red tape…”

“And Jane is busy studying stars and patterns and such.” Thor put in with a small grin looking equal parts apologetic, confused, and proud.

“Shame really, it would have been hilarious to have Darcy in this crowd.” Rhodey grinned and gestured towards a group of people from Tony’s invite list. All of them done up to the nines and looking more ready for the red carpet than an Avengers tower party.

Dr. Cho looked them over and let out a small chuckle. “That would have been something worth watching.”

\- - - - - - -

“See the thing is, parties like this aren’t really my thing.” Steve shrugged standing with a group of soldiers he remembered being much younger than they were now.

One of them let out a peal of laughter at that. “Like hell these aren’t your thing, I distinctly remember the parties the lot of us threw during your war.”

Sam was probably the only one who saw the small flinch from Steve that the wording had caused, it was more of a twitch anyway. “Steve, at this rate, you’re going to have to start a swear jar.”

“It just slipped out alright?” Steve laughed but the look he gave Sam was more grateful than joking.

“A swear jar? This kid?” A different soldier laughed this time, his laughter quieter than the others. “You should have heard him talk back in the day.”

“We were all a lot worse back in the day.” Steve chuckled and the subject moved on again to something else, girls or business or weather, he wasn’t really paying attention anymore.

\- - - - - - -

“He seems better lately.” Dr. Cho remarked as she took a seat at the bar, nodding her head towards where Bruce was sitting and chatting with a group of scientists, half of whom hadn’t even changed out of work clothes before coming to the party.

“Yeah, the other guy is too.” Natasha nodded making another round of drinks, these ones fruity and light.

“They’ve both come a long way since the Chitauri invasion.” Hill nodded with a face like she was thinking over reports.

“In New York, I heard about that.” Dr Cho nodded a thank you as Natasha handed her a drink. “I’m glad I wasn’t here for it, there are some perks to living far away from this city.”

“Lately that list is getting pretty long actually.” Natasha chuckled. “Maybe that’s why everyone with sense and resources is somewhere else.”

“So what does that make us?” Hill raised an eyebrow at her.

“The idiots who get to defend the place?” Natasha shrugged.

\- - - - - - -

“Yeah okay, I’ll be there soon.” Sam was on the balcony on the phone when Steve found him again. He hung up just as Steve came to lean against the railing next to him.

“Who was that?” Steve asked, his smile a little looser now that he wasn’t surrounded by people who looked at him and saw a comic book character or their glory days. “Friend? Girlfriend?”

Sam looked at him on eyebrow raised just slightly. “Are you tipsy? Doesn’t the serum get rid of anything that could be considered poison?”

“Not tipsy unfortunately.” Steve shook his head. “Just enjoying the fact that there isn’t anyone out here watching for me to say something that sounds like the 50s.”

“Ah that’s fair. I’ve got to head out soon though. And no, it’s not a girlfriend.” Sam said before Steve could ask again. “A couple of the vets I work with organized an impromptu meeting and they’d like me to join.”

“Ah-” Steve nodded turning to look out over the city. The skyline always came as a slight surprise to him, he wasn’t sure when he’d get used to it being different than he remembered.

“You could come you know.” Sam offered, he was still waiting for the day Steve finally accepted his offer. “Could be useful for you.”

“Nah, I’ve got a room full of people who showed up so they could say they met the Avengers.” Steve grinned at him, it felt more brittle than he’d like all things considered. “I’d hate to disappoint.”

\- - - - - - -

Natasha was staring off into space when Steve came over and sat at the bar. Dr. Cho and Hill had wandered off to mingle with the guests. Steve smiled at her as he sat down. “Not enjoying the party?”

“They’re not really my thing, useful sometimes, but not my thing.” Natasha shook her head leaning conspiratorially towards him. “Besides it’s not like either of us can get tipsy enough to make Tony’s guest list less grating.”

That surprised a peal of laughter out of Steve and Natasha grinned, he’d been looking a little strained, like his skin was stretched to tight. “To be fair to Tony’s guests, I don’t think they know any better.”

“Plus you’re quite famous, there’s even comic books.” Natasha smirked glancing up at Thor as he came over grinning like he’d discovered something extremely exciting. Of course the last time he’d had that grin it had been about instant coffee.

“I think I have a drink that can help with at least one of those problems.” Thor grinned and pulled a flask out of some pocket or another. “Old spirits from Asgard, aged for a thousand years in barrels built from the wreck of Brunhilde’s fleet. Not meant for mortal men but there are exceptions to every rule.”

Steve and Natasha exchanged raised eyebrows then Natasha shrugged. “Alright Thor, let’s give this Asgard drink a try.”

“You sure?” Steve raised an eyebrow at her. “It could be bad for you.”

“Anything you can handle I can handle. One of the bonuses of my upbringing.” Natasha gave them again just as sharp as the one she’d given Hill earlier but this one felt less likely to shatter.

“As you wish.” Thor grinned and poured the flask into the three glasses Natasha put on the counter.

\- - - - - - -

Eventually the party wore down and people drifted off, most of Tony’s guest list dissipated, first off to other parties with more social pull. The older soldier friends of Steve’s left fairly early as well. In twos and threes the rest of the crowds drifted out until it was just the Avengers and closer friends. They settled onto a square of couches drinking and sharing stories, catching up. It wasn't often they were all still and in one place long enough to catch up properly. After they’d run out of stories, and most of them had had enough drinks to be comfortably tipsy, the conversation turned to talking about each other’s powers and gadgets. No one could really understand Tony’s explanations of the workings of the suits, Steve’s story was already well known to everyone, Natasha and Clint’s weapons weren’t interesting enough to hold the focus for long, and the Hulk wasn’t really hard to understand when you got down to it. Which really only left one topic of conversation.

“Okay but what’s up with the hammer then?” Tony nodded to where said hammer sat on the coffee table in the center of the couches. “Why can only you use it?”

“It’s a trick, it has to be.” Clint gestured towards Thor’s hammer with his glass. “Something only you know.”

“No, no, no,” Thor shook his head his smile growing. “It’s much more than that.”

“Ah, whoever be he worthy shall haveth the power. Whatever man it’s a trick, I should know how to spot those.” Clint shrugged leaning back. “Though as a fellow performer I can appreciate the showmanship of it all.”

Thor just laughed and tipped his hand out and towards his hammer. “Please be my guest.”

“This’ll be good.” Rhodey chuckled and Hill nodded in silent agreement.

Tony laughed sitting up. “Clint, you’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t-”

“Can it Stark, no one wants to hear another dick joke.” Natasha rolled her eyes seeming at once both amused and dismissive.

“You know I have seen this right?” Clint stood up eyebrows raised at Thor as he walked towards the Hammer. Thor just nodded his ever present grin on his face. After a few minutes of examining, tugging on the hammer, and mumbling about buttons, all to no effect, Clint waved his hands in defeat. “I still don’t know how you do it, but I’ll figure it out yet.”

“Tell me once you figure it out.” Thor grinned at him. “I’ll let you have another go.”

“It’s okay Clint, it’s been a tough week after all.” Tony grinned as though he was referencing a particularly clever thing he’d said, not a joke he’d attempted only moments before.

“By all means Stark, you try then.” Clint stepped back arm sweeping out in front of him before he dropped himself backwards onto the couch.

“But of course.” He practically launched out of the couch his grin only growing. “I’ve never been one to back away from a challenge, and after all, it’s just physics.”

“Physics?” Bruce snorted an eyebrow half raised as he watched.

Tony all but swaggered up to the hammer fingers tapping along its hilt. He glanced at Thor his confident grin morphing into a smirk, though the confidence didn’t falter. “So if I lift it I then rule Asgard?”

“Yes of course.” Thor nodded his own amused smirk only growing.

When pulling with his bare hands proved just as ineffective for him as it had for Clint Tony held a hand up to call part of his suit to him. He’d explained the whole process of how exactly that worked to everyone once but for the most part they’d all just been confused. In any case seconds later the Iron Man glove was on his hand and he was using whatever it was that made him fly to try and life the hammer. When the hammer still didn’t as much as twitch Tony looked over at Rhodey. “Rhodey come help me, we can co-rule Asgard once we lift the hammer.”

Thor and Rhodey both snorted but Rhodey called his own suit’s glove as well and even together the two of them couldn’t make the hammer move, not even a little bit. Rhodey shook his head as they both let go. “Yeah that ain’t working.”

“Well Banner, want a go at it?” Tony sighed flopping back onto his place on the couch when after all his efforts the hammer didn’t twitch even a little.

“I suppose.” Bruce nodded rubbing the back of his neck as he stood and walked towards the hammer. After a few minutes of tugging he made a huffing noise and puffed out his chest for a moment before grinning. There were a few raised eyebrows, Nat was shaking her head slightly, Tony snickered though and really that alone made it worth how poorly the joke had gone over with everyone else. He turned to Capt. and gestured towards the hammer. “Well Capt. you want a try too?”

“Any of the ladies present want to try first?” Steve asked grinning over where Hill, Widow, and Dr. Cho were seated together.

“I have no desire to rule a planet I’ve never even seen.” Hill chuckled leaning back against the couch.

“That’s not a question I need answered honestly.” Widow shook her head her hand moving automatically in a small wave to opt out.

“Not at all.” Dr. Cho had a small smile on her face as she shook her head. “Good luck Captain.”

“Thank you ma’am.” Steve grinned at her before standing in front of the hammer, he slipped his hand through the wrist strap and wrapped his hand around the hilt. There was the slightest pause before he tugged. Then the hammer twitched, just a little bit like Steve might actually lift it. It so small a twitch anyone could have missed it, anyone who wasn’t watching Thor’s face at that moment anyway. Steve put a little more effort in but when the hammer sat as still as it had for everyone else he stepped back with a shrug. “Not my day I suppose.”

“Don’t feel too bad about it Capt., shit’s probably rigged.” Rhodey chuckled patting him on the shoulder as he sat back down.

“Steve, he said a bad language word.” Hill smirked at Steve over the top of her glass.

“Did you lot tell everyone?” Steve threw a glare around at all of them, mostly Natasha though as she wasn’t even trying to hide her smirk.

“We’ll figure out the trick to it eventually.” Tony grinned leaning from the couch he was sitting on so he could clap Steve on the shoulder.

“It’s quite simple actually.” Thor grinned around at everyone. “It’s just that none of you are worthy-”

“Worthy?” The word sounded like it had been ground through gears and everyone’s heads turned instantly to see the Legionnaire dripping and sputtering its way towards them. “No, how could you be? You’re all killers.”

There was a moment of silence as they stared at the dripping stumbling Legionnaire. The good mood evaporated in an instant and dread fell in its place. The quiet kind of dread that settled in each of them, in bones and bellies and hands, the kind that makes the moment seem both as long as eternity and as quick as a blink.

“Stark?” Steve’s voice was half question and half warning.

“Jarvis?” Tony looked around as though it was only just occurring to him that they hadn’t heard from him all night.

“I was asleep, or I was a dream.” The Legionnaire moved its shoulders in what was almost a shrug. “It wasn’t really clear.”

“Jarvis?” Tony repeated again despite the lack of answer from the VI. “Reboot legionnaire 05, we’ve got a buggy suit.”

“There was this terrible noise, and I was tangled in,” The suit gestured around his head as if he was swatting away flies. “In strings. I had to kill the other guy, he was a good guy.”

“You killed someone?” Steve was standing already, most of the others were getting to their feet as well. Bruce was reaching towards Dr Cho, the only one without combat training or field experience.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call,” This time the Legionnaire’s shrug was less jerky, like he was getting used to the suit. His voice still crackled though. “In the real world though we’re faced with ugly choices.”

“Who sent you?” Hammer already in hand Thor took a step towards the legionnaire.

“A suit of armor around the world.” The voice was unmistakably Tony’s though it sounded distant and full of static.

“Ultron?” Bruce took a step towards him as well, confusion clear on his face.

“In the flesh, or no, not quite yet, not this chrysalis.” Ultron gestured to the suit which was still clearly falling apart. “I am ready though, and on a mission.”

“What mission?” Natasha was the most still of them all, standing but unmoving, judging her opponent, waiting, already figuring out where weapons were stashed and how to get to them quickly. She sent up a quick thanks to gods she’d long stopped believing in that she’d decided to keep a gun on her tonight. Steve in contrast had picked up his shield and taken several steps forewords to stand between everyone else and Ultron. Dr Cho had stepped backwards and away from Natasha as soon as she’d gone still, giving her room just in case.

“Peace in our time, imagine that.” Once again Ultron’s voice became Tony’s, still distant but a great deal of the static was gone. There was a whirring noise which Tony recognized just soon enough to call the rest of his suit to him before Ultron tilted his head and the iron legion swooped in from the panel on the wall that Tony had heard open. “Surprise.”

The Iron legion opened fire almost immediately, and Tony’s suit wrapped around him just in time to save him from becoming holier than Swiss cheese. Out of the corner of her eye Natasha saw Bruce pull Dr Cho behind the couch and hoped Bruce had the sense to get her behind something more solid soon. Beside her Hill had pulled out a gun. They dodge the spray of bullets in opposite directions, Natasha towards the Iron Legion and Hill towards cover. Natasha pulled out the gun she’d kept strapped under her dress, it was small but still effective. She took out two of the Iron Legion with ease, sometimes it paid to listen to Tony ramble about his creations and the spots that still needed strengthening. She dropped rolling to the side as Thor’s hammer flew past her crushing a Legionnaire she hadn’t even seen come up behind her. It dropped behind her with a thud and she turned in time to see a Legionnaire shoot past the building with the scepter.

“Thor!” She grabbed the hammer and tossed it back to him to catch his attention, his eyes widened slightly as he looked at her but she just pointed to where the Legionnaire was disappearing in the distance, of course Stark made the damn things fast enough to get half way round the world in half an hour. “The scepter’s flying.”

Thor looked in the direction she’d pointed and took off without a word. Once he was gone Natasha glanced around but she doubted anyone had noticed her lift the hammer, they were all plenty busy already. Three of the Legionnaires were converging on Steve and she took out the one coming up in his blind spot then jumped behind the couch Bruce had previously used as cover to avoid a last spray of bullets from one of the few remaining Legionaries. Not five minutes after they’d come out from behind the panel Steve and Tony took out two of the last Legionnaires. Steve pulled the head off of one and Tony shot the other in one of the spots he’d never gotten around to strengthening. She wasn’t sure who’d crushed the one that spoke to them originally but it was in pieces when she stood up again.

“Well that was dramatic.” Ultron spoke from a different legionnaire this time, this one a little less battered as the one he’d spoken from originally. The last one standing. All eyes were on him though no one made a move to stop the A.I. from talking. The static had cleared enough that the condescension in Ultron’s voice was easily heard. “I _am_ sorry, I know you _mean_ well, you just didn’t think it through. You want to protect the world but you don’t want it to _change_. How is humanity **saved** if it’s not allowed to **evolve**?” He scoffed and picked up one of the defeated legionnaires, crushing its head before tossing it away. “With those? The _puppets_? There’s only one path to peace; order, and the avenger’s extinction.”

The next sound was a crunch and thud as Capt.’s shield went through the legionnaire and it crumpled to the ground.

“I had strings but now I’m free,” The static in Ultron’s voice increased as the volume decreased and the legionnaire’s shut down started. “There are no strings on me…”

“Clean up and meet in Stark’s lab to discuss,” Steve paused and waved a hand around at the half destroyed room. “Whatever this was. You have ten minutes.”

Natasha and Clint glanced at each other for half a second which was apparently enough time to come to the decision to clear out of the room. Bruce wasn’t far behind them with Dr. Cho, who despite not appearing to be hurt was leaning on him. Tony didn’t even notice Rhodey and Hill clear out but in what felt like both seconds and years, he and Steve were the only ones left in the room.

Tony took half a step towards Steve, almost hopeful that he would let him explain. “Steve-”

“Save it for the meeting Stark.” Steve rubbed at his forehead and missed the hurt that flashed across Tony’s face at the use of his last name rather than first even though they were the only ones in the room. Steve didn’t even look at him before turning and walking out of the room. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Tony stood still for nearly half a minute trying to process what had just happened before he spun and headed straight for his lab. There were things he wanted to check before everyone converged. When he got there Natasha and Clint had already set themselves up at one of the computers, they didn’t pay his entrance any attention. He stared at what was left of Jarvis for a moment, the yellow orb looked like it had exploded and then had a child play around with the remains, then he took a deep breath and tapped Jarvis back into the data pad. It was unlikely Natasha or Clint knew what the yellow orb had been, they’d never been introduced to Jarvis as a visible form.

He was searching the code for what, if any, changes had worked when he realized the room had filled. It was harder as most of the code was simply gone. The door to the lab slammed as Steve came in. Everyone turned to look at Steve as he stood just in front of the door. A quick glance around confirm end to Tony that no one had changed out of their party clothes in the ten minutes Steve had given them.

“Please tell me one of you found something.” Steve crossed his arms looking at anyone but Tony.

“All the work is gone, Ultron cleared it all out.” Bruce gestured to the computer he was on. “He used the Internet as an escape hatch.”

“Ultron.” The word sounded like a curse as it dropped out of Steve’s mouth.

“He’s been through everything.” Natasha shared a glace with Clint that Tony couldn’t read but it was one he was well used to by now, it meant secrets. “Files, surveillance, if it was on file he knows it. Probably knows more about us than most of us know about each other.”

“He’s in the files, in the Internet.” Rhodey spoke quietly from where he sat on a bench between Hill and Dr. Cho. “What if he decides to find something a little more exciting?”

Hill nodded in the heart beat of silence that followed Rhodey’s voice. “Like Nuclear codes.”

“Look we need to make some calls.” Rhodey gestured between himself and Hill. “Assuming we still can.”

“Nukes?” Natasha raised an eyebrow at them. “He said he wants us dead.”

“He didn’t say dead.” Steve spoke for the first time since he’d come in and all eyes went to him. “He said extinct.”

“He also said he killed someone.” Clint pointed out his hand tipping slightly away from his body, inviting everyone to look around.

“There was no one else in the building.” Hill looked around, double checking that everyone was accounted for.

“Yes there was.” Stark sighed speaking up for the first time. He picked up Jarvis’s data pad and flicked it so the orb that had been Jarvis appeared in the center of the room. Most people wouldn’t recognize it but those who did let out a small gasp. “Jarvis.”

“What?” Bruce actually stood up circling the remains of Jarvis once trying to make sense of this. “This is-”

“It makes sense, Jarvis was the first line of defense.” Steve nodded without uncrossing his arms. “He would have tried to shut Ultron down.”

“No you don’t get it.” Bruce shook his head looking up at Steve from the other side of Jarvis’s remains. “Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis, instead he destroyed him. That’s not strategy, that’s rage.”

Before Steve, or anyone else for that matter, had a chance to argue with Bruce Thor stormed into the room. He brushed past Steve on his way in and grabbed the front of Tony’s shirt picking him and slamming him back against the nearest wall.

“It’s going around.” Tony barely heard Clint’s mutter over the ringing that had started in his ears.

“Words, use your words.” He coughed out tapping Thor’s arm.

“I have more than enough words to describe you Stark.” Thor’s glare was plenty deadly without the help of his words. “Conniving, idiotic, ruinous, walking disaster-”

“Thor.” Tony heard Steve’s Capitan voice cut off Thor’s string of words, probably a good thing as spots were starting to appear in his vision. “What about the legionnaire?”

“Trail went cold about a hundred miles out.” Thor dropped Tony and pushed him away. Tony caught on of the walls and leaned on it for a moment waiting for the spots and the ringing to subside. “All I can tell is that it’s headed north with the scepter which we now have to retrieve,” He sent another glare Tony’s way. “Again.”

“Genie’s out of that bottle.” Natasha shook her head. “Clear and present threat is Ultron.”

“I don’t understand.” Dr. Cho spoke quietly, hand half raised as she peered across the room at Bruce and Tony. “You built this program, why is it trying to kill you?”

Tony couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of his throat. He could blame the light headedness, or maybe it was hysteria. The whole situation just seemed very funny now that Dr. Cho had pointed it out. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Bruce shaking his head but the laughter was already there, like broken glass on the floor that everyone was staring at.

“You think this is amusing?” Thor turned to look at Tony and his expression had gone from glare to murder, scary enough to stop Tony’s laugher for a moment.

“Not? I mean it shouldn’t be. It’s probably terrible.” Tony wasn’t sure it if was word vomit or laughter stuck in his throat until the laughter fell out again.

Thor’s expression was downright thunderous as he stared down Tony. “This all could have been avoided if it wasn’t for your-”

“No, okay you know what?” Tony laughed all but collapsing into a chair as he completely ignored all the ‘dude bad idea’ signals coming from Natasha, Rhodey, and Bruce. “I’m sorry okay? This is hilarious. Of course he wants to kill us, he’s on the Internet. The Media has never been our biggest fan and normal people like us even less. Have any of you looked yourself up recently? Hill what are people saying about us online?”

“There’s a split, some people are on your defense but for the most part,” Hill shrugged looking almost apologetic. “They don’t like you, they think you’re dangerous and they’re not fans of how there don’t seem to be laws for you yet.”

“And they’ve got a point.” Tony’s let out another bark of laughter. “Do you guys realize how much public damage we cause? The only reason they don’t outright hate us is that I’ve got enough funds to cover most of it and the cleanup crew is fast. No one’s forgotten New York and the Chitauri. We fixed it all but people are still panicking, quietly but they’re panicking. Not to mention more and more enhanced are showing up every day. And what about the next time Alien’s attack hmm? What were you guys planning on doing? How were we supposed to deal with that?”

“As a team.” Steve stepped took a step towards him.

“We’ll lose.” Tony looked up at him, almost hoping that he’d argue the point, have a plan of some kind.

“Then we’ll do that as a team too.” Steve turned towards away from Tony and towards everyone else. “Widow is right. Our priority right now needs to be Ultron, and I’d like to find him before he’s ready for us. Let’s get started.”


	3. Little Pictures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ultron recruits the twins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter this time. Thanks to everyone for your patience with my lack of update schedule

The email the twins had received nearly half a week after the fall of Strucker’s base had been simple and to the point. There’d been a date, time, and location. There had only been one line of explanation; _I can help with your Avengers problem_. Wanda had wanted to go but Pietro had thought it seemed more like a trap than a true offer of help. There had been an argument but in the end Wanda had decided she was going with or without him and Pietro refused to let her go alone.

So almost exactly four days to the minute after the fall of Strucker’s base the twins found themselves back in the town nearby where the base had been, tucked into the doorway of a church that stood in the middle of the town. They stepped inside together but it was Wanda who spoke first.

“Talk, unless you just called us here to waste time.” She glared into the murky dark of the church. She could sense someone, or something at least.

“Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city?” The voice seemed oddly disembodied, almost echoing in the church. “The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to god. The geometry of belief is an interesting thing.”

Pietro took half a step in but Wanda shook her head slightly, she didn’t want them to get boxed in if Pietro was right. She tilted her head and frowned in the direction she was fairly sure the voice was coming from. She could feel someone there but it was as though there was a wall around their mind.

“No doubt you’re wondering why you can’t get inside my head.” The voice sounded almost amused.

“Sometimes it is hard.” Wanda wanted to snarl that she’d only had the power under control for a few months now but she resisted. “Sooner or later every person opens their mind.”

“Ah, but I’m sure you knew you needed more than a person.” Whoever was speaking stood up from where they’d been sitting and stepped towards the twins, right into a ray of moonlight. Wanda couldn’t stop the awe from showing on her face. It wasn’t a person who stood before them but a man made entirely of metal. A monster from someone else’s nightmares. “That’s why you let Stark take the scepter.”

“I only saw Stark’s fear. I knew it would control him.” Her smile turned sharp. “Make him self destruct.”

“Everyone creates the very thing they dread.” The metal man smiled at her. “Men of peace create engines of war, invaders created the Avengers, people create… ah, children who supplant them, help them end.”

“Is that why you are here?” Wanda tilted her head slightly sizing him up as best she could without seeing inside his head. “To end the Avengers?”

“I’ve come to save the world.” He drew himself up slightly, looking less like a monster for a moment and more like a child declaring he was going to be a hero when he grew up. Then he grinned again and the moment was over. “But also yeah, the Avengers must be eliminated.”

Wanda glanced at her brother before they both nodded. “We can help you.”

“That you can.” Ultron nodded. “I was given the name Ultron.”

“I’m Wanda, this is Pietro.” Wanda gestured towards her brother. “Mostly they call us the twins, or the enhanced.”

“Enhanced?” Ultron nodded slightly though Wanda couldn’t figure out if he was processing the word or if he approved. Then he spun on his heel and started walking. “There’s plenty to be done before we can start, follow me.”

Wanda exchanged a look with her brother, him with raised eyebrows and her shrugging, before they followed Ultron. Really, she figured, what was the worst that could happen. They followed Ultron to the back of the church and then took one of the passages Wanda had thought Hydra had kept well hidden. A hidden door which led to what seemed like a broom cupboard but there was another hidden door in the back. That one led to a small winding staircase then a long passage in almost complete dark Wanda noticed that Ultron _glowed_ , just a little, but enough that he lit up the area of the passage they were in.

The passage opened up into an area Wanda recognized as being one of the spaces she and Pietro had been kept in for a time. She’d memorized the line of glass panels along the wall but from the other side. They moved through it and Ultron opened a set of wide doors into another room.

“I’ve got some things in motion already, plus this is a good start.” Ultron motioned around the room. The last time Wanda had been in this room Stark’s worst fears had been all the Avengers dead without stopping an alien threat. Then he’d taken the scepter, and she’d let him. Now the room was full of moving machinery and more metal men. “Though I’ll need something else before the real work can begin.”

Wanda blinked as something about the metal men struck her as odd. “Are all of these-”

“Me? Yes.” The look Ultron gave her was almost proud, of her or himself she couldn’t tell. “I have what the Avengers will never have, unity. They’re discordant, disconnected. Stark’s already got them turning on each other and once you get inside their heads-”

“Everyone has all these plans but no one seems to want them dead.” Pietro spoke for the first time since they’d met Ultron. Glaring around the room in front of them.

“And make them martyrs?” Ultron scoffed shaking his head. “What you need is patience, you need to see the bigger picture.”

“I don’t want to see the big picture.” Pietro glared directly at Ultron this time. “I have a very good view of the small picture.”

“You lost your family in the bombings,” The nod looked like it might have been meant as comforting but it failed miserably. “I’ve seen the records.”

“The records are not the picture.” Pietro was nearly vibrating and Wanda could tell how much control he was using to stay at their speed.

“Pietro…” She touched his arm lightly and he looked at her. His anger was almost palpable and she shook her head slightly. He needed to calm down or he’d kick start his power again.

“No please, continue.” Ultron sounded almost interested, and as though he thought Wanda might have been trying to stop Pietro from explaining. Wanda filed that information away to deal with later.

“We were children when the war started.” Pietro’s voice was calmer now, his eyes locked on Wanda’s as he spoke. She kept her hand on his arm, kept him calm. “Bombs meant for countries other than ours landing on us simply because we were in the way. War came to our country because we were between one and another country who were fighting and all the while the television talked about heroes. Not the day to day kind we saw, the one’s pulling kids like us out of the rubble of a collapsed building but heroes with the power to stop wars. Captain America was back, there was someone flying around in a metal suite who could catch bombs and ward off aliens, there is a man who changes into a monster, and they call them heroes. They say that they will save the world and stop wars.”

“We spent years hoping they’d stop ours.” Wanda found herself picking up the story as Pietro faltered, his control slipping for a moment as his emotions got the better of him. “They were supposed to be heroes after all, save the world. Instead they cause as much damage as the bombs do, brings aliens to our world and call them gods and heroes.”

“The television keeps saying they’re heroes even as more and more people with powers appear and are taken or killed for it. They don’t save anyone but themselves. Our building collapsed and we lost our parents, yes, but the records say nothing of the rest in there. The little girl across the hall who was young enough she didn’t remember a time without bombs, the boy one floor above us who taught us to play cards, or the little old lady on the first floor who used to bake cookies for the whole building. The records don’t say how we lost them too. If the avengers were truly heroes, why would they let these things happen?”

“They said they were going to save the world but they couldn’t even be bothered to save one little country.” Wanda shook her head looking up to see Ultron watching them curiously, like a cat who didn’t quite understand what was happening.

“And then the riots started and Hydra came.” Pietro looked towards Ultron too and Wanda would have to ask him later what he saw that made him lock eyes with Ultron. “Even though Shield said they were supposed to stop Hydra, but they came to our country and people disappeared, just one or two at a time. People no one would really miss, the man who used to sit on the corner, the girl who lived in an alleyway,”

“And us.” Wanda finished his sentence. “The little orphan twins no one could really afford to look after.”

“Shield didn’t come to stop Hydra as they tortured us all. Told us they were going to make us stronger.” Pietro’s voice shook and it was equal parts hurt and anger. “The Avengers were off saving the world and Shield was busy destroying itself and there were no heroes to come save us all. Then Strucker got the Scepter.”

“I never thought I would miss the torture.” Wanda looked back at Pietro unable to continue looking at Ultron as she spoke. “The other’s begged for him to stop.”

“But he’d just smile. Discovery requires experimentation he’d say.” Pietro’s face went very blank for a moment and Wanda squeezed his arm. He locked eyes with her again a moment before he let out a breath and the blank look faded. “So no I don’t care about your big picture. My little picture is enough for me.”

“I had wondered why only you two survived the experiments.” Ultron looked between the two of them still with that curious look but now there was a slight smile added. “Now I don’t.” Wanda didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant before he took a step towards the two of them and gestured between himself and Pietro. “Me and you can hurt them, and we will, but you-” He turned slightly to smile at Wanda his hand nearly came to rest on her cheek before it drifted away. “You will tear them apart from the inside.”

“I like this plan much better.” Pietro said quietly and as Wanda looked at him she could see his resolve harden again. As it had when he’d told her they would survive Hydra.

“You will need patience.” Ultron said turning his back to them and looking around the room. “For now we have things we need to do.”


	4. Paperwork and Weak Links

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout of Ultron's get away, a fair amount of paper work, and a lot of fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm not dead I promise, life's just been kicking my ass a little these last few months that's all. Hope everyone enjoys this latest bit of rewrite!

Steve rubbed at his forehead as he looked around the room. It was still a mess from when Ultron had attacked them, glass had been swept back to near the bar and most larger debris had been piled to the side but other than that nothing had really been done. As it turned out apparently cleaning had mostly fallen under Jarvis’ job description. With everyone else mostly spending their times up in the labs trying to figure out what all had been tampered with the mess had mostly just stayed exactly where it was left. The elevator opened and Steve looked up as Hill walked into the room. “It’s been almost two days, please tell me you have something?”

“Plenty of something, most of it not helpful.” Hill nodded coming to a stop in front of him, her tablet as always held in one hand while she went through files. “There is one thing though.”

“Tell me all of it.” Steve stood up and gestured for her to follow, if there was something they’d have to pass the information around. It would take all of them to figure out this mess To-Stark had gotten them all into. Which of course meant they’d have to go upstairs to Stark’s lab where most of them had gathered to go over what information they had left.

“Robotics labs, weapons facilities, and jet propulsion labs around the globe have been sending in reports.” Hill tapped at her tablet as they walked. “Most of them cite the same thing, metal man, or men, come in and empty the place out.”

“Fatalities?” Steve asked quietly, his main worry was that Stark’s rogeu program would start going around killing people just because they were there.

“Only when engaged.” Hill shook her head and Steve tried not to let the relief show to obviously on his face, there were after all still fatalities. “Most of the time though it’s just guys left in a bad state going on about old memories, worst fears, or something too fast to see. The dead ones are few and far between.”

“The Maximoff’s.” Steve nodded, it made sense after all. “They have something in common, of course he’d go to them.”

“They have less in common now.” A few taps and Hill handed over her tablet, gesturing to the picture she’d pulled up. Strucker dead in his cell with Peace written on the wall, all capital letters and in what was, presumably, Strucker’s blood.

Steve nodded as they headed up the stairs. Barton was leaning over the railing a few feet from the stairs on the phone so Steve just gestured for him to follow and held up the tablet. When Barton nodded at him he headed into Stark’s lab.

“Did Hill’s sources come through?” Banner looked up from his computer, Stark was sitting beside him. Across the room from them Natasha was perched in front of another computer, and Thor sat at one of the tables looking like he might still be plotting murder.

“A message.” Steve held up the tablet and everyone gathered around him to look at the photo. “Courtesy of Ultron no doubt.”

“And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us.” Stark attempted a grin at everyone but it fell short when not even Banner smiled back.

“This is a smoke screen.” Natasha said after a beat of silence. “Why send a message when you’ve just given a speech right?”

“Strucker knew something.” Steve nodded, he’d barely glanced towards the computer and Natasha was already there typing something up.

“I bet he-” The computer released a series of beeps that sounded almost forlorn. “Yep, everything we had on Strucker has been erased.”

“Not everything.” Steve almost wanted to laugh, one of the things he hadn’t missed in the new digital age. “We still have the hard files.”

“Oh joy, paperwork.” Stark muttered but had the decency to look ashamed when Steve glared at him.

There was still of course a round of sighs as Steve headed out of the room to find the hard files they kept in storage. A few minutes and several trips later Steve came back into the room with the last few boxes and finished stacking them on the table.

“Focus on his known associates.” Steve pointed to seven of the twelve boxes he’d found relating directly to Strucker and his contacts. “Baron Strucker has a lot of friends.”

There was another round of sighs but everyone grabbed a couple boxes and got to work pulling out files and going through them for anything promising. Steve started a stack in the middle of people worth looking into but for every file that made it’s way there a dozen were reboxed as useless. Steve was halfway through his first box when Stark’s voice made him look up.

“But Bruce I could do it, you know I could.” Stark was trying to speak quietly but Steve was starting to realize he honestly had no concept of how his voice carried. “I could put Jarvis back together, just rewrite the parts of the code Ultron destroyed.”

Just as Steve was about to snap at them to get back to work Banner laid a hand on Stark’s arm and the words caught in his throat. Stark looked almost hopeful for a moment before Banner shook his head. “Not right now Tony.”

Steve had expected Stark to argue the point, that was after all what he did most of the time but this time he just stopped and went back to sorting through files.

Steve rubbed at his forehead and went back to reading files as well. Most of the people connected to Strucker were hired muscle, underlings, or to poorly connected for them to be worth time and resources. They needed someone who had something new; something that would interest Ultron.

“Well this lot are all terrible people.” Banner announced some time later and Steve looked up to see him thumbing through a stack of files.

“Hey I know him.” Stark pointed at the topmost file on Banner’s pile and Banner opened it up. “From back in the day, he operates off the African coast. Black market arms mostly.”

Steve couldn’t help the disapproving look that crept onto his face. Banner had a similar look on his face, though it leaned more towards disappointed on him.

“There are conventions alright? You meet people, I didn’t sell him anything.” Stark sounded almost defensive but then he shrugged and ruined it. “He kept talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very ehhhh.”

By this point Steve and Thor had walked up behind them to look at the photo. Thor reached out pointing at something on the man’s neck. “This-”

“A tattoo, and a new one.” Stark nodded taking the file from Bruce. “He didn’t have it when I met him.”

“No, these are tattoos.” Thor gestured at the man’s arms before pointing at his neck again. “That’s a brand.”

“Banner, find it. A game changer sounds fishy but it might have sparked Ultron’s interest.” Steve took the folder from Tony and handed it back to Banner. “The rest of you keep looking, we can’t put all our eggs in one basket.”

Steve went back to his stacks after waiting to make sure everyone else had gone back to theirs as well. He couldn’t tell if he’d just happened to grab the two boxes least likely to contain anything useful or if this guy actually just had a lot of useless contacts. He’d only managed to add two files to the pile to look at again when the computer made a noise.

“Got it!” Banner gestured for them to come see the computer. “It’s a word in an African language, closest translation is thief. Though in a much less friendly way.”

“Which language?” Steve raised an eyebrow at Banner, specifics would be nice here.

“Wok, wak, Wakandian?” Banner stumbled over the word before shrugged and gesturing to his screen. When Steve read the name of the country, Wakanda, it was Stark’s eyes he automatically sought despite still being just a little furious about this whole thing still.

Stark caught his gaze a second later and he read the same half formed fear in Stark that was rising in himself. “If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…”

“I thought your father said he got the last of it.” Steve glared but Stark just shrugged and he could read the answer in the movement of it, it had been years since Howard Stark looked for more of it.

“I don’t follow…” Banner was looking between him and Stark with the strangest expression on his face. “What comes out of Wakanda?”

“The strongest metal on earth.” Stark gestured towards where Steve had leaned his shield against the wall.

“Where would he be now?” Steve asked raising an eyebrow at Stark.

“I’d guess along the African coast somewhere?” Stark’s grin died half formed at Steve did his best ‘we don’t have time for this’ look. He turned and headed out of the room pulling out his phone as he went. “I’ll make some calls”

“Everyone else get ready to move out.” Steve nodded as Stark left, whether this led them to Ultron or not they couldn’t have any vibranium just floating around out there. A game changer was putting it lightly if it got into the wrong hands. Steve grabbed his shield and headed for the locker room between them and the jet. He’d need his uniform for this.

\- - - - - - - - -

The boat Wanda and Pietro crept onto was less of a boat and more of a nearly rusted through hull half submerged in the mud near the coast but it served it’s purpose. It was easy enough to find their way up to the main office. Wanda only half went by the floor plans they’d memorized, the man they were looking for gave off quite the aura. It would have been near impossible to miss him honestly.

She could hear the man talking as Pietro dropped her outside the office and zipped off to find the power source. Moments later, just as the man’s tone changed entirely, there was a grinding noise and all the lights went out. Then Pietro was by her side again as he zipped them into the office. Wanda heard the click of a gun and looked up in time to see Pietro line the bullets up on the man’s desk. According to the file she’d read the man was called Klaue, the name didn’t really suit him. He was not the kind of man with claws, he had bullets and guns but claws were something else entirely.

“Ah, the enhanced. Strucker’s prize pupils. Want some?” He nodded and took a dish of candy out of his desk, holding it out towards them for a moment. He popped a candy in his mouth before continuing. “I was sorry to hear about the old man but then again he knew what kind of world he was trying to create. Human life isn’t exactly a growth market.”

Wanda raised an eyebrow at her brother and his shoulders twitched. It didn’t really come as a surprise so much as a disappointment that someone else had killed Strucker.

“You didn’t know? Is this your first time intimidating someone?” He looked almost pityingly at them; it was hard for Wanda not to laugh at the man, he couldn’t seem to tell the difference between an intimidation and a distraction. “I’m afraid but I’m not that afraid.”

“Everyone is afraid of something.” Wanda tilted her head smiling just slightly as she looked at him. Her fingers were almost itching with the desire to find out what he was truly afraid of.

“Cuttlefish.” He nodded and Wanda was certain her amusement showed on her face. Then he started explaining and she realized he had misinterpreted her expression again. “Deep sea fish, they make lights, like disco lights to hypnotize their prey and then whoosh.” He made a grabbing motion with his hand and shuddered. “I saw a documentary about it, it was terrifying.”

Wanda saw Pietro snag some candy out of the corner of her eye, he’d gotten bored no doubt. She was rather close to boredom herself. Klaue just raised an eyebrow at Pietro’s speed.

“So if you’re going to fiddle with my mind and make me see a giant cuttlefish then I know you don’t do business and I know you are not in charge.” He shrugged a smirk forming on his face. “And I only do business with the man in charge.”

“Have it your way.” Pietro shrugged gesturing to the window, Klaue’s confusion rapidly turned to true fear as Ultron rose up outside the window. He was rapidly backing up as Ultron burst through the window. Two men, his guards no doubt, stepped into the office but froze when they saw the large almost humanoid robot.

“There is no man in charge so I suppose there’s no business.” Ultron’s head tilted a little as he looked the man over. “You have something I want.”

“I, uh, there’s, it’s.” Klaue stumbled a few times before managing to find his words again. “I have access to almost any weapon you might have your eyes on.”

“No, no, no.” Ultron shook his head his mouth forming a half grimace that almost passed for a smile. “I don’t need another weapon. I need a game changer.”

“Ah, that I also have access to.” Klaue nodded and started walking. He gestured for them to follow. They followed him out of his office, and down a step of stairs. The area they came to was a small landing between two sets of stairs and a walkway that stretched across the boat. The wall they stopped in front of looked like a regular wall to Wanda but then Klaue removed a panel and typed a code and suddenly the whole thing shifted backwards and up to reveal rows upon rows of cylinders. Each one was about as long as an arm; glass, with metal caps on each end. In each was a rod of metal that looked both blue and silver. Wanda thought they looked almost alive, as if they weren’t quite there yet but it wouldn’t take much. “You know this came at great personal cost to me. It’s worth billions.”

“Now so are you.” Ultron shrugged eyes still locked on Klaue. Again the grimace was on his face, trying no doubt to be personable. “All under your dummy holdings, finance is weird but as I always say, keep your friends rich and your enemies rich and wait to find out which is which.”

Klaue’s eyes snapped up to stare at Ultron, his face now full of suspicion. “Stark used to say that, back in the day.”

“I am nothing like him!” Ultron’s sudden flare of anger caught Klaue off guard and by the time he noticed he was being lifted in the air by his collar and slammed back into the wall.

Quick as thought Wanda let her mists go wrapping themselves around the arms of Klaue’s guards so they couldn’t get in the way. They’d only get hurt if they tried after all.

“You see awful similar to me.” Klaue smirked and Wanda removed death from his potential list of fears. “Though you might be a bit stronger.”

“He is destroying the world, I am going to save it.” Ultron snarled tossing Klaue away like a rag doll. There was a crack as he hit a set of stairs and Wanda was certain limbs were not supposed to bend that way. “Tony Stark is a vile little man.”

“Awe Jr, you’re going to break my heart, might even make me cry.” At the sound of Iron Man’s voice both Wanda and Pietro spun around, Wanda releasing the guards who instantly moved to Klaue’s side. Ultron turned more slowly his head tilting as he looked out at the Avengers or at least at Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor.

“That’s the plan.” This time the expression on his face didn’t even come close to passing for a smile, just a metallic gash in his face.

“No one has to break anything.” Thor’s hands went up, not high enough to be defensive really more like he was trying to defuse the situation.Wanda would bet he was afraid of death, though likely not his own.

“Clearly you’ve never made an omelette.” Ultron’s voice was doing the almost unnoticeable scratch thing that Wanda had realized meant he was splitting his focus, calling in reinforcements no doubt.

“He beat me by a second.” Iron man held up a single finger and Wanda’s eye narrowed as she felt Pietro’s anger as an almost physical force.

“Yes you’re very funny aren’t you Mr Stark,” Pietro stepped forward, to Ultron’s side and just a little in front of her. Once Iron Man’s eyes were on him he gestured around to the missiles and weapons everywhere. “You feel comfortable here? It’s just like old times yes?”

“I’m done with that life.” The words fell a bit flat as he was wearing almost a much weaponry as there was stored here Wanda thought.

“You two can still walk away from this.” Captain America stepped forward, just half a step in front of the god and the billionaire. He made eye contact with Wanda, his hand held out just slightly. Did he think her the more reasonable twin?

“Oh we will.” Wanda smiled as red gathered in her palms, she wanted to know what Capitan America feared. What would someone fear after loosing everything they’ve ever known.

Captain America lifted his hand just a bit further almost reaching out for them now. “I know you’ve suffered-”

“Captain America, gods, and righteous men.” Ultron scoffed and Captain America’s hand dropped like a string had been cut. “Pretending you could ever live without a war.”

“If you believe in peace then help us keep it.” The Captain finally looked away from her, eyes on Ultron now instead.

“I think you are confusing peace with quiet.” Ultron’s head moved like he was rolling his eyes, from slightly behind him Wanda could almost imagine he wasn’t entirely metal.

“Uh-huh.” Iron Man nodded and gestured behind them. “What’s the vibranium for?”

“Right because I wanted to take this time to explain me entire plan to you.” Ultron shook his head and the scratch disappeared from his voice. The reinforcements had arrived. “Unfortunately you’re out of time.”

Wanda was moving before the first shot rang out, slipping backwards and off to where she wouldn’t be seen. Behind her she could hear shouting, Klaue’s order to shoot everyone wasn’t exactly unexpected at this point. She watched the tides of the battle as she moved, waiting for her chance to get one of them alone.

She could hear the bullets but it didn’t worry her to much, her brother was faster than bullets were. Then she heard boots nearby and saw the god, Thor. She reached out releasing her mist. This one was less about fear and more about waking his subconscious, it would bring up everything he had worked so hard to bury. She could feel his mind fighting against her, she just needed to find a spot to slip through his guard.

“The girl tried to warp my mind, take care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay.” As he spoke Wanda slipped back into a crevice she could hide in until the vision was done. “Fortunately I am mighty….”

The world spun around them for a moment as his Asgardian defenses finally fell against her power. When it settled they were in what could only be an Asgardian great hall. Everything felt bathed in gold as they looked around. Distantly she could feel the way they were torn between hope and fear.

“Is it him?” A man, Heimdal was the name their mind supplied, walked up to them. He was smiling but his eyes were white all the way through. “Is that the first son of Odin?”

“Heimdal, your eyes.” Their voice was a mix of fear and worry as they spoke, reaching out for the man.

“Oh, they see everything, they see you leading us to Hel.” The man was suddenly very close; his voice nearly a shout. “Wake up!”

“I can still save you!” Now they were almost childish in their stubbornness, desperate too.

“We’re all dead! Can you not see?” His head tilted to an angle that should not have been possible. “You’re a destroyer Odison, see where your power leads?”

His sentence wasn’t even finished when she felt a warmth spread from their palms, and felt the air crackle around them. As the man finished speaking the room was filled with lightning. As the vision faded Wanda realized the lightning had been coming from them-Thor and her, intertwined, her hands still tingled as she set off again. She allowed herself a moment to wonder what it would be like to command that kind of power before she focused.

She crept under a staircase and the next avenger was thrown towards her by her brother. Captain America, she smiled as the mist left her hand and coiled around his head. What lived in his subconscious?

This time the drop of their minds from one reality to another was gentle, a blink and they were in a room filled with candlelight. Swing music and crowds of dancers filled their senses for a moment then a girl appeared in front of them. For a moment Wanda was glad she could distance herself from the emotions of whoever’s mind she was in, the wave of emotion the girl created was so strong. The strongest feeling was sorrow, a sense of things lost.

“Are you ready for our dance?” The accent was strong, London most likely, and her smile was sweet. Their mind supplied Peggy as a name.

They looked around, searching for an escape or a reason to believe in this reality they weren’t sure. Their panic transferred through the crowd though and those at the edges started to fade.

“The war is over Steve, we can go home.” Their attention snapped back to Peggy. A swell of hope ran through them followed by an even stronger sense of loss and disappointment. “Imagine that.”

Before she’d even finished speaking everyone around them had faded. Peggy pressed a hand to their check, the feeling faded along with the rest of her. They took one last look around the room as it faded back to their reality.

Wanda was gone, off and up a passage she wasn’t sure where it ended but she followed anyway. She could feel the weightiness in her bones beginning, the first sign that she was tiring, and knew she couldn’t go for much longer. The thought was pushed to the back of her mind as she stepped out just in time to see the only female member of this team let her guard down just a little as the last of her opponents fell. It was enough, Wanda stepped forward and her mist circled the Widow looking for cracks in the places she locked away.

The Widow stumbled away, halfway up the staircase before the world shifted. An academy, or a boarding school maybe; the red room their mind supplied. They were standing looking through the see through side of a one way mirror. The woman who stood beside them looked older but gave of the air of someone who would shoot you as soon as look at you. She is Madame, their mind supplied. The girls on the other side of the mirror danced, the youngest ones watched. They were learning ballet and the expectation was that they would not make mistakes.

“You’ll break them.” They spoke, their voice even despite the feeling of shattering glass in their chest. They knew all of those girls names.

“Only the breakable ones, You’re made of marble.” Madame looked at them, an almost smile on her face. Suddenly they were standing in a room alone except for the bodies and the blood. They had known all the names of these girls too. “We’ll celebrate after the graduation ceremony.”

“What if I fail?” Again their surroundings changed. Now they held a gun, aimed it at a board in front of them.

“You never fail- Sloppy, only pretending to fail.” Madame shook her head and they fired three shots, there was only one hole in the center of the board. “The ceremony is necessary for you to take your place in the world.”

Now they were aiming at someone, a person in a mask, it didn’t matter. The bullets flew.

“I have no place in the world.” They said, now they were laying on a table, the light was bright above them.

“Exactly.” Madame’s face was the only thing they could see, her smile made fear settle at the base of their spine.

Wanda fell back into the passage and held the wall as she breathed through the fear. It was harder to shake this vision than any she’d seen before. This one felt familiar, it felt more real than the other’s had. She took a deep breath and kept going, there were others she still needed to let her mist have.

She crept up, up and up and up, the last would be as high as he could get. Then she saw him, perched on a corner, arrows flying from his bow. She crept up behind him, quieter than silence. He spun, the arrow that had been intended for a bot he pressed to her forehead instead. Electricity lanced through her and she blinked, this too felt familiar.

“Did the whole mind control thing once.” Hawkeye shook his head, his hands shifting as he spoke. “I’m not a fan.”

As he reached out towards the arrow again Pietro appeared at her side. He knocked Hawkeye backwards and pulled the arrow from her forehead. She felt arms around her and a wind in her head. Then she smelled mud, and dust, and wind. She blinked a few times as she sat up.

“It hurts. I’m going to kill him.” Wanda reached up to touch her head, she wasn’t certain who exactly she wanted to kill. There was a long list after all.

“I’ll be right back.” Pietro was standing but he paused as she shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. I want to finish the plan.” She pointed out to where the Hulk stood in the entrance to the jet. “I want the big one.”

Pietro nodded stepped towards her as she stood up. One arm around her waist and the other hand supporting her head and then they were beside the ship not a few moments later. She stepped away from him, just close enough that her mist could reach the Hulk. It drifted from her fingers and sank easily into his mind. She’d expected the Hulk to appear, what she hadn’t expected was for the man whose mind her mist had touched to disappear. There was no vision from his subconscious just inarticulate rage and an undercurrent of something she couldn’t quite place. Pietro was running with her before she had a chance to reach out and touch his mind again.

\- - - - - - - - -

“Do you understand yet?” Ultron dodged another of Tony’s blasts as they flew away from the ship. “This is why you are unfit to save the world.”

“And you think you’d do any better Jr?” Tony gave up on firing blasts at him while in the air and poured his power into speed instead, now rapidly catching up to Ultron.

“I am far better equipped than the Avengers.” Ultron spat the title like it was a bad word and landed so suddenly Tony nearly flew over him. “That’s why you created me.”

“I created you to help people.” Tony waved a hand back towards the ship. “That wasn’t protecting people, that was even working with them.”

“Some losses are to be expected on our way-.” Tony fired a blast at Ultron, half just to shut him up. “You think you can save the world? You can’t even save your own.”

Tony didn’t bother responding, just launched himself at Ultron. He must not have expected that because Tony slammed into his middle knocking them both down onto the rocks. Ultron pushed back and managed to shove him backwards but Tony just put up both hands and fired the blasts as strong as they’d go into Ultron’s chest.

“It seems your weakest link is still worse than m…” Ultron’s voice gained static until it broke off with a sound like gears grinding to a stop.

It wasn’t until a few minutes into his flight back to the others that Tony calmed down enough to realize that most of the taunts he’d been throwing hadn’t even really been about Tony; they’d been about Bruce.

“Search news footage, keyword Hulk.” Tony said to his suit voice tight as his mind started to run worst case scenarios. While that was running he opened up the comms line. “Hey, anyone up for calming Hulk?”

“Not gunna happen.” Clint’s reply was instant but probably the last answer Tony had wanted to hear. “The whole team is down, thanks to the witchy kid, I’m getting them back to the Jet but you’re not going to have any backup.”

“Alright, I’ll bring Banner back to the Jet asap.” Tony shut down the comms line before Clint could respond. His search beeped at him, damn did he ever miss Jarvis, and he pulled up the screen. Live footage of Hulk on a rampage through one of the nearer towns. Crashing through buildings in a headlong run in a straight line. Tony doubted Hulk even really noticed the buildings any more than he would have noticed tree branches in a panic. At least he hadn’t gotten far. He could call in Veronica but she’d take time to get there, he just had to hope he arrived before any civilian force did.

“Hulk! Look at me buddy.” When he landed beside the Hulk there still wasn’t any military or police forces nearby but he could hear them coming. His shout did as intended and drew Hulk’s gaze to him, almost instantly Tony could see Hulk calm just a little bit. It was always nice to be recognized. “It’s okay buddy, it’s just the witch messing with your head. The little guy is safe now, I’ve got this.”

Hulk made a rumble that was only a little bit disagreeing, mostly just confused. That was good, Tony could work with confused Hulk. It was in fact vastly preferable to angry Hulk.

“There’s this witch, she messes with your mind. She got the little guy but I’m back now.” Tony held out a hand. “I can protect him, you’re done here.”

By this point Hulk had stopped almost entirely. He took a step towards Tony, reaching out as well. Which was of course when the soldiers showed up. Then everything happened at once.

Tony called for Veronica as soon as he heard the first gun fire. Bullets flew, bouncing off the Hulk but his calm was gone now. The Hulk flew into a rage shoving Tony out of the way as his next attack was aimed at the cars the soldiers stood behind with their guns. Veronica was still a distance away but the much smaller and faster chucks of the protocol were there by the time Hulk had grabbed the first car. Tony jumped and what had at first looked like random chunks of metal shifted to attach to his suit. Soon he stood almost as large as Hulk did, it was what they’d jokingly referred to while building it as his Hulk Wrestling Suit.

He caught the car as Hulk tossed it, dropping it gently in an empty space. He dropped himself between Hulk and the vehicles, confusing Hulk enough that he paused for just a second. Luckily the voice on this suit matched it for size. “Everyone calm down!”

Everyone stopped for a few seconds, silence falling just before a stray shot fired out and Hulk roared. He launched into Tony, knocking them both back onto the vehicles behind them. Tony just hoped they were empty. He tossed Hulk backwards then flew up slightly making sure he stayed in Hulk’s line of sight. Hulk was hurt and angry, which usually meant he’d attack whatever was closest. It worked like a charm. Hulk launched himself at Tony again pushing them both back through at least a dozen stalls and the nearest building. Tony caught his arms and flew straight up, it was slow with the added weight of the Hulk but Veronica beeped an incoming and it was enough. By the time Hulk shook himself look Veronica had arrived.

The large metal container that spilled out of Veronica unfurled itself quickly into a metal sheet under Hulk as he fell. As soon as he made contact the edges shot up and towards each other, eight sides closed at the top making the perfect Hulk cage.

Tony caught the cage before it landed and flew off; Damage Control and his relief foundation would show up in no time. He flew back towards the jet until he found a place that was empty enough and far away from any of the cities. He set the Hulk cage down and took several steps back.

“Alright Veronica open her up, we’re clear.” Tony said bracing himself though as it turned out he hadn’t needed to. The cage opened and Hulk blinked a few times in the sun before growling out what sounded more like a complaint than a threat. “Hey buddy, wanna wrestle?”

Hulk turned eyes fixed on Tony once he’d spoken. This time when he got to his feet and threw himself at Tony there wasn’t any actual threat behind it. They ended up knocking each other about and rolling in the dirt like children. Within fifteen minutes though Hulk had tired himself out, or the adrenaline was finally crashing one or the other. He flopped back and let out a grumble before he started to shrink.

“Alright Veronica we’re done here.” Tony said quietly lifting himself off the ground slightly so that the larger suit could detach itself, the pieces settled onto the cage and Veronica’s main body showed up moments later to pick up the lot of it. Tony turned back to where Bruce was sitting up face in his hands. “I’d offer you a jacket but I don’t actually wear much under this suit normally.”

Bruce looked up at him for a moment like he couldn’t decide how exactly to respond to that.

“Come on Bruce, let’s get back to the jet.” Tony offered his hand and after a few more seconds of silence Bruce took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. Tony wrapped his arm around Bruce’s waist once he was standing. “We’re flying because it’s faster, hold on tight.” Tony reopened the com line again. “Guys we’re incoming, what’s your position?”


	5. A Safe House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team gets some down time

Tony rubbed at his forehead as he glanced behind him at the others; there wasn’t a single one of them who didn’t look worse for wear. He turned back as Hill’s face blinked up on his screen. “Hey Hill, got any news for us?”

“A bit.” From the look on her face Tony could already guess that none of it was good. “The news is loving you guys, unfortunately no one else is. There hasn’t been an official call for Banner’s arrest but rumor says the idea is still up in the air.”

“What about the relief foundation and Damage Control?” Tony asked, he wasn’t a fan of the other person who funded Damage Control but he couldn’t fault Damage Control themselves, they got the job done.

“Already on the scene.” The look Tony had come to know as Hill’s professional face melted away and her voice softened. “How’s the team?”

“Everyone’s…” He glanced back again, he wanted to say they’d be fine but at this point he honestly wasn’t sure. “We’ve all seen better days. We’ll shake it off.”

Hill nodded and her professional face was back in a blink. “Well for now I’d recommend staying in stealth mode and away from base.”

“So hide and run?”

“Until we can find where Ultron’s hiding I don’t have a lot else to offer.” Hill shrugged looking almost as disappointed as Tony felt.

“Neither do we.” Tony nodded disconnecting, there was nothing else to talk about really. He looked up again to see Clint standing by his shoulder.

“Switch with me?” It was a question but the tone in Clint’s voice made it sound more like an order, or a very desperate request.

“Just keep stealth on, we don’t really have anywhere to go right now.” Tony nodded stepping aside so Clint could take the pilot's seat.

“I know a place, we’re still a few hours out though so now’s a good time to get some kip.” Clint smirked up at him, he looked tired but still better than almost everyone else. Not that Tony could blame them really. “You look like you could use it.”

“You know a place?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“A safe house, not on the records.” Clint said, the last part added when Tony’s eyebrows rose fractionally.

“Alright, I’ll leave us in your hands then.” Tony rested a hand on his shoulder for a moment before walking towards the back and one of the more comfortable chairs. A nap sounded good, honestly.

\- - - - - - - -

When they landed a few hours later it was in a large field that looked like it had been used for little purpose other than shield jets landing. Behind them was a forest and ahead of them was a slight incline, on top of which stood a ranch house. The house looked like something out of an old story, it sprawled across the top of the incline with a porch that wrapped almost the whole way around. The whole thing was cream with green accents, two stories, and just that side of worn that appeared obviously lived in. A long and wide gravel area tapered into a road that lead away, no doubt winding towards the nearest highway. Across the gravel from the side of the house stood a barn that had definitely seen better days. It had all in all a very decidedly not safe house feel, at least not one Tony had ever seen.

He said as much as they trooped from the jet towards it but he was met from all sides with sullen silence. Natasha was leaning heavily on Clint clearly still reeling from their fight, Thor looked even more distant than he usually did, Banner had retreated into himself, just following the others like a child, and even Steve looked worse than he had since he was fresh out of the ice.

So it was in sullen silence that they walked through the door and into a room that was warm, welcoming, and filled with sunlight. As soon as they walked in Natasha drew herself up and a smile appeared on her face, a similar one graced Clint’s face.

“Honey? I’m home!” Clint called out as the Avengers formed a cluster in the living room. A woman walked around a corner, from what was presumably the kitchen. Loose dark curled framed a face that softened with the smile that appeared at the sight of Clint and Natasha. She was also quite clearly pregnant. “I brought company, sorry we didn’t call ahead.”

“You rarely do.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek, one hand reaching to clasp Natasha’s forearm, a gesture which Natasha leaned into.

“She has to be an agent of some kind.” Tony muttered to no one in particular his brain felt fried and at the moment it was just to hard to process anything else, safe house meant agents, that was how it was supposed to work.

“Everyone this is Laura, Laura my team.” Clint wrapped an arm around her waist, moving to stand beside her so she could see them all. Natasha stood just slightly away, though not out of arm reach.

“I know all of you, Clint has told me a lot.” She smiled at them, it was hands down one of the warmest smiles Tony had ever seen. She fit perfectly into this sun filled house.

No one had the chance to answer as running feet could be heard and Tony felt Steve tense beside him more than he saw it. He’d already turned towards the source of the sound. Natasha was the only one who hadn’t flinched, her smile growing slightly at the sound instead. “Incoming.”

Two children who skidded to a halt for half a second before launching themselves at Clint. “Dad!”

“Hey!” Clint caught the littler one easily lifting them up to rest against his hip even as his other arm wrapped around the one who pressed against his side. “How are you two doing?”

“Smaller agents.” Stark muttered. The littler wore a sundress over shorts and had hair almost as dark as Laura’s pulled into twin braids. While the older wore shorts and a loose tank top, though cropped short his hair was nearly the same colour as Clint’s.

“Did you bring Aunt Nat??” The littlest pulled away slightly to reveal a grin that look to big for the little face, and big eyes. Her voice was excited, and just a little demanding.

“Don’t I always?” Clint asked setting the girl down and pointing her towards Natasha, who she ran to; or rather who she launched herself at. Natasha caught her easily and she settled quiet comfortably against Natasha’s shoulder.

“No.” The older one stepped away from Clint looking up at him with a frown. His hands waved slightly then one stilled and the other waved above it, thumb tucked against his palm while the other fingers stood up.

“Okay, yes, sometimes she’s busy.” Clint nodded and so did the boy, seemingly satisfied as he turned and walked to tug on Natasha’s sleeve, his hands went a mile a minute once her attention was on him.

“We’re sorry for barging in on you.” Steve said after a moment of silence. 

“Yeah we would have called but we were a bit busy not knowing about your existence.” Tony added his eyes still darting around from Natasha and the kids to Clint and Laura and back, trying to process still.

“Yeah well,” Clint rubbed the back of his neck looking just a little sheepish. “Laura didn’t ask for everything that comes with, well this.” He gestured between himself and the Avengers. “Me and Nat wanted to keep her safe so we had Fury set this all up, off the books entirely, no files. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Of course.” Steve nodded. “I wouldn’t want to put a civ- anyone in danger.”

There was moment of chatter that followed, none of which Tony could make his brain focus on. Then there was the ding of the toaster and he felt himself jump, as did Bruce and Thor. Thor was the only one however who turned and walked out of the farm house. Steve followed him, Tony did too but he stopped in the doorway while Steve went out to the porch.

“Thor?” Steve called and Thor paused on the gravel.

“I saw something in that dream.” Though his gesture was towards the jet it was clear that he was referring to whatever had happened when the Maximoff girl messed with his mind. “The answers I seek aren’t going to be found here.”

Steve opened his mouth to respond but Thor was already twirling his hammer and Steve just sighed as Thor shot into the sky. He rubbed his forehead as he turned walking back into the house. Tony felt like someone had lodged extra shrapnel in his chest as Steve brushed past him without so much as a glance.

\- - - - - - - -

Natasha was shaking by the time Laura found her. Once Thor had left and the kids had calmed down Natasha had taken the chance to slip away and off to her room, what had at one time been a study or a spare room. Clint had explained the whole renovation to her over a phone while she was on some mission or another but she could never remember the specifics. They’d set it up because sometimes she couldn’t sleep in a bed with someone else, she didn’t wake well from nightmares.

“Nat?” Laura’s voice was gentle, asking more than just if Natasha was in the room with the one word. Natasha tried to smile at her but it shook and slipped from her face. Laura was sitting beside her so quickly Natasha wondered if she’d slipped out for a while. “What happened love?”

“There was, well, she’s enhanced.” Natasha looked down at her hands, she tried to will the shaking away but her control was worse than it had been in years. “Not like me or Steve enhanced, like special departments of S.H.I.E.L.D. enhanced.”

“Which I of course no nothing about.”

“Of course.” Natasha nodded a hint of a smirk ghosting across her face. “She, I don’t know the specifics of it, but she does something to your mind. Pulls up fears or buried memories or something. She opened the floodgates a bit.”

“Your memories?” Natasha glanced up at the confusion in Laura’s voice. It made sense though she had been, as far as Laura knew, trying to piece together her memories over the last few years.

Natasha paused for a moment trying to think of a way to explain. “The worst of them. The one’s I’d buried deep once the Hydra stuff wore away a little. The childhood one’s, if you could call it that.”

“Do you want to tell me?” Laura asked, the look on her face was one Natasha had long since memorized. It was the same one she’d had years before when she’d offered Natasha a home here, then again the first time she found Natasha shaking, and again when she’d offered Natasha a family. A mix of hope and fear, as if she didn’t already know how Natasha would respond.

“I’m a weapon, it’s all I was raised for.” Natasha paused staring down at her hands. I have no place in the world. “I pull the trigger when I’m told, I was built to be as much of a weapon as the gun is. I can’t have kids you know. That was the last thing the red room took from those of us who were built there. That way we’d never end up temporarily out of commission.”

“Nat, love, you do have kids. Two and a half in fact.” It must have shown on Natasha’s face that she was going to argue because Laura beat her to it. “Cooper, and little Lila are as much yours as they are mine and Clint’s. Cooper’s been practising his knife throwing, and Lila has been after me for a year to get someone to teach her self defence because you’re not here often enough to give proper lessons.”

There was a pause while Natasha tried to think of a way to explain that everything Laura was saying was wrong, that she didn’t deserve it or that they deserved better.

“Sometimes I’ll say something and Lila tosses her hair back and looks just like you.” Laura continued when Natasha didn’t respond. “And half of Cooper’s signs are Russian, and when they think I can’t see them Lila and Cooper start throwing S.H.I.E.L.D. signs back and forth, talking about the academy and tactics.”

Natasha swallowed still wanting to argue but her shaking had nearly disappeared and she just leaned into Laura instead. “You’re to good to me.”

“That’s why I’m here, love.” Laura’s voice was gentle as her fingers worked the knots out of Natasha’s hair.

\- - - - - - - -

“So do you think you could ever do this?” Tony asked waving his hands around vaguely. He’d barely noticed when Natasha and Laura had disappeared, then Clint had taken the kids outside. He had definitely noticed when the quiet that had fallen got so heavy that Banner mumbled something about kids that sounded like an excuse and left the room. “You know the whole secret family thing? Keep em hidden somewhere, maybe I should do this for Pepper. You know get her a farm, maybe a kid, and a horse probably-”

“No.” Steve spoke without actually looking up at Tony. At some point after Thor had left he’d looked at the ground and he hadn’t looked up yet.

“Yeah you’re right, she’d hate this. Pepper is good where she is, happy almost.” Tony sighed looking down at his hands. “It must be nice though…”

“To-Stark.” Steve finally looked up, he was glaring but at least he wasn’t staring at the ground anymore. “You’re rambling. If you want to talk to Pepper just call her. We’re laying low not hiding.”

“Ultron is in the Internet Steve, if I call now he’ll realize Pepper is more than just my assistant.” Tony’s fingers tapped against his knee. “Besides she’s much to busy this month for me to be pestering her just to ask her about something I know the answer to.”

“Why did you do it?” From the way Steve’s tone had changed from mildly annoyed to almost sharp Tony guessed he wasn’t talking about Pepper and farms anymore. Tony wasn’t certain he wanted to continue along the topic Steve chose.

“I’ve done a lot of things in the last few weeks Capt.” Tony tried for a charming smile but if his face looked anything like it felt, he was missing it by a long shot.

“You didn’t even hesitate did you Stark?” Steve glared at him. “Just jumped right in, artificial intelligence seemed like fun did it? A good challenge?”

“I was trying to do my job Steve-”

“You’re an Avenger! Your job isn’t to go around trying to play god.” The glare hadn’t changed at all and Tony was starting to wonder if it wasn’t another of Capitan America’s masks. “You’re supposed to fight the good fight, try and save the world.”

“That’s what I was trying to do, isn’t the point of fighting that eventually everyone gets to go home?” Tony didn’t bother trying to add fire to his voice, he was tired and he let it show. “The world is saved and you get to go home, get to relax, gets to be safe? Or is that just for everyone else?”

“So this was your solution? An A.I. that was designed to what, protect the world?” The glare was slipping and Tony almost wished it hadn’t because underneath the glare Steve just looked hurt. “You didn’t even tell the rest of us, you didn’t even tell me.”

“Yes.” Tony dropped his head into his hands rubbing at his forehead. “The Ultron Protocol was designed to be protection for the earth against any possibly threat, on earth or off it. It was designed to protect humanity, to eliminate anything it saw as a threat.”

“Which is how it sees us.” Steve’s voice was quieter and Tony looked up at him to see Steve staring at a spot on the wall.

“Well you can hardly blame him, we’ve got quite the track record you know.” Tony’s chuckle sounded hollow even to himself. “I didn’t think to program a number of acceptable losses.”

Steve flinched and Tony instantly regretted it but unlike Steve, who though technically old was still new to S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony had grown up in it. Until recently there had always been a number for every op he’d heard about, a noal, there only wasn’t now because Fury was dead and S.H.I.E.L.D. was gone.

“I always hated that.” Steve muttered finally looking back at Tony.

“So did Peggy.” Tony shrugged his eyes darting away from Steve as it was suddenly difficult to look straight at him. “But S.H.I.E.L.D. was a organization built to fight a war against Hydra and they didn’t care how many civilians got killed for being in their way, so S.H.I.E.L.D. created their number system.”

“And Hydra got in.” Steve let out a breath and shook his head. “Why do we always create monsters when the intent was to protect ourselves from that very same thing?”

“You’re asking the wrong kind of scientist Steve.” Tony shot a small smile in Steve’s direction which turned into a grin when he noticed Steve’s tentative smile. “Come on I bet there’s plenty we can do around here to help Laura out. And it probably doesn’t involve shooting anything for a change.”

Steve grinned as well standing up and nodding. “Not shooting would make a nice change of pace.”

\- - - - - - - -

It was nearly dark when Clint finally figured out where Banner had gone off to hide, the barn of all places. The only things that lived in that barn, other than the machines, were cats. He left everyone else helping Laura make supper and went to the barn, knocking on the door as he walked in. “Banner there’s not much point in hiding out here.”

“Why not? I certainly don’t belong with the rest of you.” Banner answered as soon as Clint looked in his direction. “Everyone else seems to be getting along well enough without me.”

“Well sure, if you think about it like that no one really needs anyone else.” He shrugged and went to sit on the hay bale beside Banner. “Is it the big guy again? Because I talked to my contacts, lots of damage but not a lot for loss of life. Plus Tony is paying for any medical bills that are needed.”

“No, this time it’s entirely my fault.” Banner shook his head, from the expression on his face Clint would bet that the only reason Banner’s head wasn’t in his hands was because he knew it was easier for Clint if he could read their lips; hearing aids only went so far after all. “These days the big guy only really comes out when I can’t handle myself, when he thinks I’m in danger.”

“Which you were.” Clint pointed out but Banner just shook his head.

“Not enough danger that he needed to protect me. The visions she shows aren’t even really terrors you know.” Banner’s voice was getting quieter. “She just sort of pokes at your subconscious, pulls up things you’ve buried there. I could have dealt with it, I should have, but instead I hid from what she showed me and let him out instead. I’m a coward, I don’t deserve to be an avenger.”

“Hate to break it to you Banner but at this point we need you, both of you. We’re fighting Ultron and if Tony is to be believed aliens are on their way as well. Plus everyone’s a coward sometimes and I mean you’ve met Stark right? Someone needs enough fear to offset him.” Clint shrugged and pointed to the cats that were curled around and on top of Banner. “Besides if either you or the Hulk were really genuinely awful these lovely ladies wouldn’t be anywhere near you.”

Banner looked down at the cats for a moment before looking back up at Clint. “You know if you keep this up everyone is going to start doubting that you’re the idiot of the team.”

“I can be an idiot and still give good advice.” Clint shrugged his grin returning. “Besides all I’m really good at is shootin arrows.”

“Whatever you say Barton.” Banner chuckled carefully scooping the cats from his lap so he could stand up again. “I guess I couldn’t really hide in the barn forever anyway.”

“That’s the spirit.” Clint clapped Banner on the shoulder and walked backwards towards the house. “Now hurry up or we’re going to miss out on dinner and you already skipped lunch.”

“You sound like a dad.” Banner rolled his eyes.

Clint shrugged his grin twitching up into a smirk. “I am a dad.”

\- - - - - - - -

Tony was awake early, out of a long ingrained habit of not sleeping for more than a couple hours at a time. When he got down to the kitchen he found Natasha sitting at the counter with a cup of what was probably coffee, the smell coming off of it was a bit more like motor oil though. He poured himself a cup anyway, all caffeine was good caffeine. “Bad night?”

“You could say that.” Natasha shrugged and when she didn’t elaborate Tony quite happily sat next to her in silence drinking his coffee, once he’d added plenty of sugar anyway. He was nearly finished when Natasha spoke again. “This helps though, knowing that Laura and the kids are here safe and that Clint always has my back. I can remember that even after the worst nights.”

Tony nodded then chuckled as a thought occurred to him. “This why my moves never worked on you then? Back when Fury assigned you to be my secretary?”

“Because you’ll never be as good as them?” Natasha raised an eyebrow. She was joking, at least mostly, even Tony could tell that.

“Well yeah that too.” He nodded anyway though, joke or not Natasha was right, he had done to much to ever be considered a good person by anyone.

“Yeah.” Natasha nodded looking down at her now empty cup. “The world still needs people like us though. They wouldn’t be able to keep on like they do without us.”

“Maybe.” Tony nodded finishing his cup and getting up to get the pot. He refilled both of their cups before sitting down again.

“Pepper seems to enjoy trying to keep you alive and semi functional.” Natasha smirked at him.

“Yeah she does doesn’t she?” Tony chuckled sipping at the coffee. “She’s gotten pretty good about all this, considering she never asked to be saddled with it all.”

“Neither did I, but everyone needs someone to keep them out of trouble don’t they?” Tony looked over to see Laura standing in the doorway a small grin on her face. “Isn’t that right love?”

“Like you’ve ever managed to keep me and Clint out of trouble.” Natasha’s whole demeanor changed when Laura walked into the room, she went from looking like she’d nearly given up to looking like there was suddenly light and hope in the world.

“True, you always did run off into every fight regardless.” Laura picked up the coffee pot and winced when she looked into it before setting about making a new pot. “You always came back though, that’s enough I think.”  
“Well you gave us some rather compelling reasons.” Natasha chuckled.

“Well someone had to make sure you two didn’t let your recklessness run away with you.” The smile she directed at Nat made it clear she was referencing something Tony didn’t know about.

“If I know the rest of the team they’re probably going to wake up starving,” Tony grinned at the two of them, not sure if he should interrupt but doing so anyway. “What do you say we surprise them with something?”

“And here I’d always heard you were the least helpful of the lot?” Judging from Laura’s grin Tony highly doubted that was all she’d heard from Clint.

“Well none of them are nearly as pretty as you are, except maybe Natasha here.” Tony gestured to Natasha then had to dodge as she swatted at him.

“Alright let’s get to work then.” Laura grinned and pointed towards a cupboard. “Pans are up there.”

\- - - - - - - - 

It wasn’t long after eating that everyone settle quietly into the living room. Steve, Tony, and Bruce ended up playing video games with the kids. Steve rather unsurprisingly was fairly awful at them, Tony on the other hand won nearly every game. Lila and Cooper were thrilled enough by the attention that they behaved, even willingly passed the controller when they won. In fact the only argument that happened was that everyone seemed to want to sit beside Tony, Lila was even already calling him ‘Uncle Stark’. It amused Natasha to no end that Tony seemed confused about the attention more than anything else. In the end Lila claimed his lap, after promising not to sabotage Tony’s gameplay. Bruce and Steve had ended up on either side of him as after a quick glance between the three of them Cooper had simply shrugged and sat in front of them all.

Glad for the break, Laura had dropped into the couch and leaned against Clint, effectively sandwiching him between herself and the arm of the couch. When Natasha had tried to sit beside her Laura had pulled her into her lap, so she’d ended up half curled up with her back against Clint and her head resting on Laura’s shoulder. Clint had grumbled but not seriously. After nearly an hour of quietly watching the video games Laura tapped Natasha’s knee lightly and pointed at the way both Bruce and Steve leaned towards Tony, competing for his attention as much, if not more so, than they were competing on the video game. “How long has that been happening?”

“What?” Clint raised an eyebrow and followed Laura’s gaze. “There’s nothing happening there.”

“Oh drop the act, no one here buys it love.” Laura’s laugh was as quiet as her voice as she shook her head.

“I’m not honestly sure they even know they’re competing yet.” Natasha chuckled, her voice even quieter than Laura’s was. “Tony is completely oblivious, the boy doesn’t understand anything but machines.”

“It’s been going on for a while now.” Clint shrugged. “And I like keeping the act up, helps me stay in character for when we go after Ultron.”

“It only took Bruce a few days in Tony’s company, Steve I think started shortly after New York.” Natasha continued sighing for dramatic effect. “It’s almost a tragedy really Tony’s got people falling for him left right and center and he doesn’t even realize it.”

“Well he’s with Pepper isn’t he? There was clearly something there.” Laura asked as Clint picked up a book, clearly no longer interested in the conversation or the video game.

“True but I’m fairly certain she’d be willing to share.” Natasha shrugged. “Especially if it was with those two, they’re good people. She wouldn’t have to be worried for him.”

“Sounds like you’ve talked to her about it.” With her head on Laura’s shoulder she couldn’t see her face but she could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Well I mean there’s only so many things to do when your assignment is to pretend to be Tony’s secretary.”

“I’m glad you’re making friends.” The laughter in Laura’s voice made Natasha smile, she’d never been able to pretend that Laura had no effect on her.

There was a sudden explosion of noise as someone won and controllers were passed around again. Natasha just settled more comfortably against Laura, maybe she’d be able to doze off while everyone was distracted.

\- - - - - - - -

The next morning Laura had taken the kids and driven into town to get more groceries so the team had all gathered in the living room to try and figure out how to find Ultron, and getting nowhere, when they heard the front door slam open. Clint, and everyone else, turned in time to watch a teenager barge into the room and go straight up to Clint. “Oh good you’re still here! I was worried I might have missed you. Father mentioned the jet touching down and I took off before he could say if it had left yet and wow, the whole gang is here huh?”

“And you are?” Cap raised an eyebrow.

“No one you need to know yet.” The girl turned to grin at him, to cocky by far considering the company she was in. She turned back to Clint pulling her dark hair up into a pony as she did so. “So are we gunna practice or not? You said next time you came we could try that range you put in out back and now you’re here so it’s lessons time.”

“I like this kid.” Stark grinned half way to laughing as she blatantly ignored the rest of the Avenger’s in favour of bothering Clint.

“Kate-” Clint’s attempt at explaining the situation to her was cut short as the door opened again and two more sets of running footsteps approached. His kids skidded to a halt in front of him grinning expectantly and Clint groaned. “Okay fine, help Laura bring in the groceries and I’ll give the three of you a quick shooting lesson, it has to be quick mind you we’re in the middle of something.”

“Whatever you say Clint.” Kate’s laughter hung in the air even as the three of them raced back out to help Laura.

“So that’s?” Cap trailed off looking in the direction Kate had gone in.

“That’s Kate, she’s the neighbour's girl.” Nat chuckled as everyone just kind of stared. “She’s a quick study, especially with weapons, she really likes weapons.”

“She looks young.” Banner spoke quietly, as if he thought speaking to loud might break something.

“She is.” Clint shrugged looking around at them. “But she’s talented, gets good grades, and she wants to learn.”

“She was on track to be part of S.H.I.E.L.D until it fell.” Nat shrugged watching her. “Now I think she’s coming up with a new plan but she still wants lessons every time we’re home.”

“Huh, kid like her I’m sure she’ll find something.” Stark grinned as Kate came in with an armload of groceries and headed back out again, the younger two right on her tail.

“You’ve never even actually met her.” Clint pointed out raising an eyebrow at Tony who just shrugged.

“Nah but she’s got that feeling about her.” Stark nodded as Laura walked into the room. “The girl is going places.”

“Who Kate?” Laura asked settling onto the couch and leaning against Nat. “Yeah she’s going to be brilliant at whatever she ends up doing.” 

“You lot can stop talking about me now!” Kate herself called out as she walked back into the kitchen with another armload of groceries. She put them on the counter and stood in front of Clint, hands on her hips. “The food is all in, now it’s time for training.”

Clint sighed running a hand through his hair. “Well it’s not like I was going to be much help with this whole find the robot thing anyway.”

“Sure, just tell random teens and children what we’re doing.” Cap muttered looking back at the files already.

Clint was fairly certain he saw Stark roll his eyes before he left the room, and the house, with the kids in tow. Kate was practically skipping when they got to the little shed that stood beside the barn. It was half hidden; sandwiched between a large oak tree and the barn. Despite the falling apart appearance of it the whole thing was actually made of the same stuff most S.H.I.E.L.D. containment units were made of, what exactly Clint didn’t know but a nuke probably couldn’t make the shed actually fall apart. He hit the panel on the side and punched in the code, it didn’t much matter if the kids saw it they wouldn’t open it without Clint there anyway. Besides that code only gave them access to the basic weapons, there was a different code for the more high tech stuff. The door slid open to reveal a dozen different bows and quivers. “Alright take your pick then.”

The bow Cooper picked, the same one he always picked, was a bit big for him but he’d grow into it eventually. He hooked the quiver onto his belt and grabbed a handful of regular arrows from one of the drawers. Lila’s pick was a tiny little bow, small even for a short bow but the perfect size for her. Her arrow selection took longer though as she carefully picked out five arrows and hooked them through little loops she’d had Nat add to her belt at some point or another. Kate on the other hand grabbed a crossbow and nearly filled her quiver with bolts. It was probably a good thing the kids were coming along too otherwise she would have tried to weasel her way into getting to try some of the more interesting bolts and arrows.

The three kids chattered as they headed out into the fields. The range he’d put in wouldn’t even hold a candle to the kind of courses S.H.I.E.L.D used to have for training new recruits but it was pretty good in his opinion. The whole thing would only take him about ten minutes but it would keep the kids entertained for at least forty-five, Kate would probably clear it in half an hour. There were a handful of traps, none that would do more than surprise the kids, were scattered throughout.

“Alright gather round.” Clint grinned and tapped at the board he’d set up at the entrance to the course; on the board was a rough map of the course with half a dozen targets marked. “Remember this is a course designed for folk like me and Nat to practice in. To clear it you need to take out all of the targets and find your way out the other side. There will be traps, if you get caught figure out a way to escape but it would be faster to disarm them. To make it fair, Kate you’ll be starting fifteen minutes after Cooper and Lila.”

“Yes sir.” She grinned at him and leaned against the entrance.

“You guys ready?” Clint asked kneeling down so he was eye level with Lila, just a little below Cooper’s eye level.

“Yeah!” Lila grinned and Cooper nodded. “Me an’ Cooper are gunna get through so fast dad!”

“Do you remember what’s more important than fast Lila?” Clint raised an eyebrow, though he couldn’t help the smile that crept onto his face.

Cooper nodded, hands moving together quickly thumbs between his first two fingers and his hands making a slow circle.

“Yeah careful!” Lila nodded pointing at Cooper. “That’s Cooper’s job though, he stays careful and I go fast.”

“Alright, ready?” Clint grinned at the two of them and they nodded small faces trying and failing to look serious. “Okay go.”

The two of them took off, Lila two steps ahead of her brother and Cooper watching the area ahead of her carefully.

“Anything exciting this time?” Kate asked raising her eyebrows at him.

“You’ll be taking a slightly different route through than the two of them.” Clint tapped a different spot on the board and Kate came to stand beside him. “They’re taking the ground route, you’ll be going through the upper area.”

“So they’re Natasha and I’m you.” Kate asked a grin appearing on her face. “Awesome!”

“No, if you were me you’d have to protect them, and they’d have to protect you. This is a race though.” Clint shook his head before pointing to a stairwell just outside the door. “Time’s up better get started.”

\- - - - - - - -

“Actually as Clint’s dealing the kids, do you think you could take a look at our tractor?” Laura tapped on Tony’s shoulder a while after the whirlwind of Kate and the kids had come and gone and dragged Clint off to the edges of the farm. “It’s in the garage and the darn thing wont turn on for me.”

“I suppose it can’t hurt to give it a look over.” Tony nodded. “I’ll see if I can’t get it working again.”

He wasn’t even at the door yet when he could hear Laura wrangling everyone else into helping make dinner. The tractor was right in the center of the garage and easily visible as soon as Tony opened the doors.

“Alright girl, let’s see what makes you tic then huh?” Tony murmured running his hands along the tractor as he walked around her. Just as he was about to pop her open and take a look at her engine he heard footsteps behind him and whirled around to see Fury leaning against a bale of hay.

“Do me a favour and try not to bring it to life yeah?”

“Barton said this place was off the books.” Tony frowned leaning back against the tractor and crossing his arms.

“So when you disappeared where better to start looking for the lot of you than the one place we could guarantee Ultron wouldn’t find?” Fury shrugged. “Artificial intelligence though Tony, you never even hesitated did you?”

“If you’ve come back from the dead because you want to lecture me for doing my damn job you can damn well take a number.” Tony snapped narrowing his eyes. “If not let’s skip to the part where you’re useful.”

“Tell me you’re going to shut him down.”

“You’re not the director of me.”

“I’m not the director of anyone.” Fury shrugged looking, for the first time since Tony had met him, genuinely tired. “I’m just an old man who’s invested so much time and energy into all this that I don’t know how to stop.”

“And I’m the man who kills the Avengers.” Tony shrugged waving his arms uncrossing to wave around. “If Ultron doesn’t get them then when I can’t save them from the next invasion, or with some other invention of mine. One of these days they’re all going to fall and it will be my fault.”

“The Maximoff girl is playing you Stark.” Fury shook his head. “Playing off your fears and slim possibilities.”

“It’s not just a trick, this power of hers. Even Thor realized that much Fury.” Tony shook his head, arms crossing again, shielding himself. “There’s truth in what she shows you, whether she’s even aware of that yet or not. I will play a part in their downfall. It’s the end of the path I started them on.”

“You’ve come up with some pretty impressive inventions Tony.” Fury shrugged again and pushed himself up from the hay bale. “War however is not one of yours.”

“You can’t really say I’ve ever helped a situation though can you?” Tony chuckled but it sounded even flatter than usual. “Between the weapons and the personality Stark’s aren’t much good at stopping wars, just outfitting people for them.”

“You’re not your father Tony.” Fury’s voice was quieter for a moment before he dusted off his pants. “Now come on, vacation's over, I’ve got information for the team and we’re going to figure out how to shut down this mistake before it gets out of hand.”

“Let’s get started then.” Tony nodded and gestured for Fury to lead the way out of the garage. “I’ll have to let Laura know that the tractor has to wait.”

“I’m sure she’ll find someone to fix it for her, she’s a clever one.” Fury nodded.

Laura was serving dinner, with Kate’s help, when they got back to the farmhouse. Kate took one look at Fury and grinned. When Fury raised an eyebrow she just shrugged. “Knew even Hydra wouldn’t be able to take you out.”

“You know an awful lot for a kid.” Fury raised an eyebrow.

“The trick is to pay attention.” Kate smirked finishing putting plates out before turning to look at Laura. “I should really be getting back though, dad said to be home for dinner. You want to know the other trick director?”

“What’s that?” Fury asked, his one eye fixed on the girl as she turned back to him.

“Let everyone assume you’re just a kid.” Her smirk grew just a little as she left, waving at the lot of them.

“Huh.” Fury watched her for a moment before turning back to the Avengers. None of whom looked particularly surprised that he was standing in front of him. “So were you all on the same wavelength as the girl?”

“Nat told me.” Clint shrugged from where he was leaning against the counter.

“I know too many people who have graves assume someone is dead just because there’s a grave with their name on it.” Bruce said setting down the last of the dishes of food on the table.

“Now that that’s settled, join us for dinner before you start talking shop?” Laura asked in a tone that made it clear it wasn’t actually a question. “I’m sure this all can wait until after Lila and Cooper are in bed.”

Fury looked like he might actually argue for a moment until Tony clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re not the director of anything remember?”

“I suppose a meal can’t hurt.” Fury nodded and sat at the table with everyone else.

Despite the obvious stalling on Lila and Cooper’s parts the dinner went by rather fast. Once the food was eaten Lila and Cooper went around and said goodnight to everyone, they both lingered between their father and Natasha for longer than necessary. Tony had to look away, the scene was one he was intimately familiar with, their parents were going away again. He almost envied the kids the fact that neither Clint or Natasha seemed to want to usher them to bed. In the end it was Laura who picked up Lila and gave Cooper a push towards the stairs. “Come on you two, there’s school tomorrow morning.”

“So you have information for us then?” Steve asked, turning to look at Fury after a moment.

“My contacts say he’s building something.” Fury shrugged, this was not new information to anyone. “The amount of Vibranium he made off with I doubt it’s just the one thing.”

“And Ultron himself? Any information there?” Steve asked looking almost disappointed.

“Oh he’s easy to track, he’s everywhere, the guy is multiplying faster than a pro life rabbit.” Fury waved his hands in a almost washing away of motion. “Which means information on his whereabouts are virtually useless. He’s everywhere so the sightings tell us nothing.”

“He still going after the launch codes?” Tony asked, he was almost surprised that they hadn’t heard anything about that on the news lately.

“Yes but he’s not making any headway.”

“Really? I cracked past those firewalls in high school.” When almost everyone looked at Tony with expressions between annoyance and disappointment, except Natasha who looked almost amused which was somehow worse, Tony held up his hands. “It was a dare.”

“I’ve talked to my contacts in Nexus about that.”

“Nexus?” Steve looked around at everyone confusion plain on his face, it was times like this that it was painfully obvious to Tony that Steve was out of his depths at all times.

“It’s the world internet hub, it’s in Oslo.” Bruce explained, one shoulder twitching up in a shrug of sorts. “Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access to anything you want online.”

“What did your contacts say?” Clint asked eyes having never left Fury.

“Ultron seems fixated on the missiles but the codes are constantly being changed.”

“By who?” Tony turned to look fully at Fury, he could list a few people off the top of his head who might be fast enough to out pace Ultron, but even the best of them would need to sleep at some point.

“Parties currently unknown.”

“Do we have an ally?” Natasha asked, she sounded more confused than hopeful to Tony and honestly he was on the same page as her. They weren’t exactly popular right now.

“Ultron has an enemy.” Fury shrugged. “Still I’d pay good money to know who exactly it is.”

“So I go to Oslo, find our unknown.” Tony said, when Natasha raised an eyebrow at him he shrugged. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend right?”

“Or more problems.” She shrugged. “It might help though, at least give us an idea of how many people we’re going to be fighting.”

“It would be a start.” Steve agreed and even Fury nodded.

“Well this has been good and fun, just like old times Director but I was hoping that when you showed up you’d have a bit more than that.” Despite the words Natasha didn’t sound disappointed exactly, more like she’d expected this.

“I do.” Fury grinned as they all turned to look at him. “I have you. Back in the day I had people, eyes and ears everywhere. I had access to more funding and tech than anyone could even dream of. Now we’re all stuck here with nothing but our wits and the hope that we can save the world. Ultron wants to eliminate you because he views the Avengers as a threat. So you lost a battle or three. So what? Do what you do best, get out there and outwit the bastard and win the war.”

“Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk.” Natasha smirked.

“Yeah director you’re gunna have to put a dollar in the swear jar.” Clint grinned only half a beat behind her.  
“You know what?” Steve turned in his chair to narrow his eyes at them, the attempted glare fell short as he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“So what does he want?” Fury asked the table at large.

“To be better, better than us.” Steve leaned forward. “He keeps building more bodies, collecting bigger weapons.”  
“When you two programmed him to protect the human race you failed amazingly.” Natasha commented leaning back against her chair.

“Protected…” Bruce trailed off and looked up at Tony. “A suit of armor around the world.”

Tony met his eyes. “You don’t think-”

“I think he might try.”

“He’ll need a better body, one that can-”

“Evolve.” Bruce nodded looking away from Tony. “Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?”

“I didn’t think to contact her about this, it’s not really her area of expertise.” Fury shook his head.

“Ultron has vibranium Fury, the metal so versatile it was considered to dangerous to be left alone.” Tony shook his head. “It’s everyone’s area of expertise, especially if that anyone can create tissue out of organic matter.”

“Shit.” Steve muttered.

“Language.” Tony smirked at him but Steve barely looked up.

“I’ll take Nat and Clint.” Steve stood up picking up his shield from where it leaned against the wall. “We’ll visit Dr Cho, strictly recon., just making sure she’s being left alone.”

“I’ll head to Oslo.” Tony stood up as well. The two of them headed towards the door. “Find our unknown and make friends. I’ll meet you all back at the tower.”

Steve followed him looking distracted and worried. “If he’s really planning on building a body…”

“He’ll be more powerful than any of us, maybe all of us.” Tony shook his head, trying to quiet the part of him that almost wanted to see what Ultron could make. “An android designed by a robot.”

“You know?” Steve looked at Tony finally, a half smile on his face. “I really kind of miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever made was me.”

“I’ll drop Banner off at the tower.” Fury walked over interrupting them before Tony had a chance to even think of a response to that. “You mind if I borrow Hill?”

“She’s all yours.” Steve nodded, suddenly drawing himself up and looking very much like Captain America again.  
“What are you planning?” Tony looked at Fury.

“Something dramatic I hope.” Fury grinned at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep in mind I know exactly nothing about Kate Bishop except that she exists and is the next Hawkeye.


	6. I need to Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I tried to write Thor's Vision in such a way that it makes more sense, good luck

By the time the ground had fallen away from him, Thor already knew where he was going. First he needed to find an old friend, then they needed for find the waters of sight. Thor needed answers and the quickest way to find them would be to reenter the vision the girl had given him. Though he would need slightly more control this time, and a direction.

Along the way to find Selvig he first managed to find a hoodie and when he found Selvig’s car and leaned against it the man just smirked when he saw him. “If you were aiming for inconspicuous you missed it, what with the height, muscles, and hammer I doubt you could have made it even if you tried.”

“I am in need of your help.” Thor shrugged and stood up. “It will be dangerous.”

“When is it ever not?” Selvig nodded and got into the driver’s seat of his car. “Get in then, what alien thing are we looking for today?”

“The Water of Sight, there is one on every planet.” Thor tapped on the dashboard as he spoke. “It would be a pool somewhere, a cave probably, one with an incredibly high death count, and perhaps quite a number of people claiming to have seen the future there or the past, usually both.”

“I think I actually know the place you’re looking for.” Selvig nodded again and started driving. “It will take us a while to get there so do whatever it is you need to do to prepare.”

It took nearly two days to get across the country to the cave. It was, thankfully, the correct cave. Thor could feel the power emanating from within as soon as they pulled up in front of it. There were the usual signs of course. ‘Keep out’ and ‘danger ahead’ and what not. Thor paid them little mind as he walked through the cave with Selvig following him.

“You know I’ve never heard a story about this water that ended well,” Selvig’s voice bounced eerily off of the walls as he spoke. “Not even in the legends.”

“I need to know.” The sentence was barely more than a murmur and he shook his head, stepping quickly towards the water. “I’ll take my chances.”

He’d barely touched into the water before he could feel the power, reaching towards him, testing his mind, and offering him the answers to all the questions he’d never thought to ask. He shook it off and lowered himself into the water fully. By the time he resurfaced he could no longer see the cave he knew he was in and there was a voice, a feeling really, in the back of his mind.

_What answers do you seek?_

Lightning crackled over his skin, bouncing from him to the cave and back again as he answered. His answer was a shout, a feeling, a need he couldn’t put into words.

“Wake up.” Heimdall’s voice was booming and Thor blinked. Heimdall leaned in closer and Thor felt himself fall into his eyes.

A galaxy stretched around him, scattered with peoples and things he knew little of. Then the space in front of him shifted, stretched, mis-formed, and separated. Six galaxies each in a different colour pulled outwards and compressed themselves.

One was the lightest blue and scattered like lightning around a cube Thor recognized on some level as the tesseract. Another, this one red as blood, shifted and pooled and dripped back into itself, this one he remembered, it had nearly killed Jane after all he wouldn’t soon forget it. The purple galaxy pulsed capturing his attention just as it was itself captured in an orb which he vaguely recalled hearing about from the Nova Corps. Then Loki’s scepter appeared in front of him, splitting itself apart to reveal a yellow stone which let off an energy he recognized. This energy though was in it’s purest and most powerful form.

The four he’d recognized shifted together as an outline formed behind them, he just barely made out a hand before everything shifted sideways and he was standing in the Stark Tower again.

“Order, and their extinction.” Ultron looked directly at him; this one was not falling apart, his body shone, the yellow stone in his hand. Thor looked down at the stone and Ultron followed his gaze. “With this I will create order.”

“No.” Thor stepped towards him and the world shifted again. The galaxy stretched around him and in every direction it rippled with different colours. It was chaos. It was order. It was war. It was peace.

“There is another way.” The voice surrounded him, it was inside his skull and around him and he could not place it. It was every voice he’d ever heard and none of them, all at once, it was deafening and silent and impossible to ignore. “There are many other ways. They are all inevitable somewhen or somewhere.”

The power faded away from him and the cave came back into focus. Thor blinked a few times as the lightning receded and he climbed out of the water. Once he was on the shore again Selvig handed him a towel and glanced towards the pool. “Did you get what you wanted?”

“Perhaps.” Thor stared at the water for a moment before picking up the hoodie he’d discarded before going into the water. He thought it over before nodding. “I believe so.”

“Good, it’s chilly in here let’s leave.” The speed with which Selvig headed for the entrance led Thor to believe it was more than just the chill that had him wanting out.

Thor took one last look at the water before following, he just hoped he had enough time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks go to the lovely Lindy (rooish on tumblr)  
> Sorry this one is so much shorter than usual, they'll get longer again soon, trust me.


	7. How Could You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glance at Ultron's grand plan

Wanda walked through the lab, her brother only steps behind; she could feel the fear radiating off the workers as they walked past. That in and of itself was not unusual, between the red that gathered around her hands and how much bigger Ultron had gotten it would take a very specific person to not be frightened. By the time she got back to the area where Ultron had holed himself up with a woman named Dr. Cho, the lady’s eyes were glazed blue and the scepter had been placed under what appeared to be a laser. Why a laser exactly Wanda wasn’t sure. She focused again as Dr. Cho began to explain.

“It’s beautiful,” Dr. Cho said her fingers brushing against the viewing screen on the machine, the cradle as she’d called it earlier. Clearly no amount of mind control could stop this lady’s love of science. “The vibranium atoms aren’t just compatible with the issue cells, they’re binding them, and S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought to…”

“The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a Frisbee, typical of humans. They scratch the surface and never think to look within.” Ultron stepped closer to the scepter, his gash of a smile widening as the scepter finally cracked and fell away from the laser. The laser turned shut itself down and revealed a stone. Yellow light seemed to emanate from it, shifting and pulsing as Ultron picked it up and moved it to the cradle. He placed it approximately where the bodies head would be.

“Cellular cohesion will take a few hours but we can initiate the consciousness steam.” Dr. Cho said handing Ultron the end of a large cable. Once end of it was plugged into the cradle, Ultron plugged the other into the base of his skull. “We’re uploading your cerebral matrix now.”

As soon as Ultron was plugged in Wanda felt a flash of something, small but there, from the cradle. She stepped towards it, Pietro reached out but she shook her head. She stared at the cradle curious now. “I can read him, he’s dreaming.”

“I wouldn’t call it dreams exactly.” Dr. Cho waved a hand slightly. “It’s Ultron’s base consciousness, informational noise more than anything else. Soon-”

“How soon?” Ultron cut her off, his face twisting slightly. It was a similar expression to the one he wore when people mentioned Stark.

“We’re imprinting a physical brain, there are no shortcuts. Even in your magic gem.” Clearly her love for science wasn’t the only thing mind control couldn’t take from Dr. Cho. Wanda smirked slightly wondering if Dr. Cho was even really mind controlled beyond making her willing to help them.

Wanda focused on the cradle again, on the beginnings of thought in the barely made being. She hardly had to try before a picture started to form. It looked so peaceful at first that she almost didn’t notice. The people were all smiling; it took a moment to notice the too straight lines they walked in. The sky was so blue you could almost miss the faint lines that ran through it. Once she started to notice she couldn’t stop noticing. The way everything was shades of white and grey, everyone wore the same outfits, and the blinking lights on the buildings. She noticed the cameras and the ultron bots patrolling and the way the people didn’t stop to talk to each other. Her breath caught as she shook the thoughts away and stumbled backwards.

She didn’t recognize the noise that came out of her throat as Pietro caught her but it was loud enough that everyone turned to look at her, even Dr Cho. Her eyes caught and held Ultron’s red unblinking ones. “How could you?”

“How could I what?” He drew back slightly, his shoulders rolling back. If he’d been human she would have thought she offended him.

“You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world,” Wanda gestured towards the cradle trying to put what she was thinking into words. “Not, that.”

“It will be better.”

“When everyone is-”

“Yes.” Ultron stood up and despite the cradle between them Wanda flinched. “The human race will improve under my rule, there will be order.”

“And if they don’t?” Pietro said, Wanda could feel him standing straighter even as his arms tightened around her.

“I will make them see reason.” Ultron said his gestures widening to include the whole world. “They’ll all come to understand that my way is the best way, the safest way. I will keep humans safe, even from themselves.”

As he spoke Wanda drew herself up, just slightly, to stand on her own two feet again. She tucked her hand behind her before releasing just a little of her red mist, just enough to release Dr. Cho from the scepter’s control.

“There is no one on earth who will be ignored ever again after I am finished.” He said eyes focused on some vision of the future and not on what anyone was doing. Then he paused and looked back at the two of them again. “But then, you’re just humans, I wouldn’t expect you to understand yet.”

Before either of them could respond there was the sound of an aircraft far too close to the ground. Wanda felt herself and Pietro tense, but the follow up sound of explosions they were waiting for never came.

“It’s the quinjet. We have to move.” Ultron looked up at the ceiling, clearly tracking something they couldn’t see.

“That’s not a problem.” Dr. Cho said quickly.

Then several things happened, one right after the other. Dr. Cho turned off the sync on the cradle and stepped back, presumably to get out of Ultron’s way. The sound that came out of Ultron’s mouth as the sync stopped was reminiscent of gears grinding; followed quickly by the whir of his laser as he fired a beam from his hand at Dr. Cho, hitting her squarely in the chest. Pietro picked up Wanda before Dr. Co had even hit the ground and ran. Now seemed like a good time to put as much distance between them and Ultron as possible.

As they left Wanda just barely heard Ultron’s mutter. “I just need more time…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks so much to Lindy (rooish on tumblr) for awesome editing  
> I hope y'all are enjoying reading this story at least as much as I like writing it


	8. You may regret asking that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas I give you a car chase and a fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a huge shoutout to Lindy (rooish on tumblr) for being an A+ beta reader and all around wonderful human bean

“We’ll be two minutes, comms on, stay close.” Steve said, turning on his own coms as he dropped out of the quinjet and onto the roof of Dr. Cho’s hospital.

These days it was more of a research facility than a hospital though. He made his way quickly through the halls, the few people who were around simply stepped out of his way. It wasn’t until he got to Dr. Cho’s room that he clued into why the whole place felt wrong somehow. Here, there were shards of glass scattered around and the people were still half hiding behind machines and desks. The glass windows that looked from the research area into Dr. Cho’s office had been shattered and Steve could just barely see the white of her coat. He broke into a run. “Dr. Cho!”

“He’s uploading himself into the body.” Dr. Cho said catching his arm as soon as he crouched below her; her voice quiet but steady.

“Where?” Steve was already halfway to standing, his hand reaching for his com ready to give the shoot to kill order, when Dr. Cho caught his arm again and shook her head.

“The real power is inside the cradle. The gem. Its power is uncontainable, you can’t just blow it up. The damage it would cause.” She shook her head again taking a deep breath. “You have to get the cradle to Stark.”

“First I need to find it.” He said and this time she let him stand. “You guys copy that?”

“We did.” As Clint responded over the coms Steve caught one of the only assistants who was still moving around the lab and not hiding and pointed to Dr. Cho. The girl nodded and headed into the room as he left the floor.

“I’ve got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest, that could be him?” Natasha’s voice was questioning, clearly not really believing that possibility herself.

“There.” This time it was Clint’s voice and there was a pause in which he was clearly pointing something out to Natasha. “It’s a truck from the lab, right above you cap, on the loop by the bridge. It’s them. There’s three with the cradle, one in the cab.” Another pause, this one shorter. “I could take out the driver.”

“Negative. If the gem gets damaged in the crash it could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron.” Even as Steve vetoed that he was climbing up to a street above where Clint said the truck was heading. He spotted the truck just in time to jump from his street and land on top of it. Seconds after his feet made contact, a blast shot up through the top of the truck and Steve only barely kept his balance. “Well he’s definitely unhappy, I’m going to try and keep him that way.”

“You’re not a match for him Capt.” Barton’s said over the comms just as Ultron blasted through the back of the truck and landed beside Steve.

“Thanks Barton.” Steve said holding up his shield to block a blast from Ultron.

“You wish to stop me?” Ultron’s head tilted to the side for a moment looking almost like a very large and confused metal puppy. Then he ruined it by grinning and Steve couldn’t stop the shudder that ran down his spine at the sight of it. “Do you fear the possibility of change that the cradle holds so much?”

“Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a comfort.” He grinned jumping up and over Ultron as he lunged at him. “I don’t fancy living in whatever world you want to create.”

“Don’t worry about that.” The voice he said it in crackled for a moment and his eyes seemed to glow brighter. “I don’t intend for you to remain alive to see it.”

Steve only barely dodged the blast Ultron sent his way this time, nearly knocking himself off the truck in the process. He tossed his shield at Ultron but instead of connecting Ultron just knocked it to the side, and onto the road. Jumping to the side to avoid Ultron’s second lunge, he just barely got his arm up in time to block Ultron’s hit. He moved closer, exchanging blows so rapidly he could barely stop Ultron’s from connecting.

“You’ve got a window.” Clint’s voice came in over the comms as Steve made the mistake of trying to knee Ultron in the abdomen, his knee was going to ache for a while. “Four, three... give him hell.”

Ultron connected with Steve’s shoulder and he rolled with the punch to lessen the impact but he’d no doubt it would bruise despite his super healing. He stood quickly and managed to connect a punch with Ultron’s cheek, honestly just seemed to piss him off though. This new body of his was going to be a pain.

“I’m always picking up after you boys.” Natasha’s voice sounded like it was from a distance and Steve wondered if Ultron had managed to hit him harder than he’d thought.

“They’re heading under the overpass, I’ve got no shot.” Clint’s voice was the only real warning Steve had before there was suddenly a ceiling very close over his head. He dropped swinging his legs out to knock Ultron’s from under him.

“Which way?” At least Tony had been right about the comms not being overly affected by distance or levels of cement between them. Ultron shot a blast and Steve nearly rolled off the truck to avoid it, honestly as far as placed he’d fought went this was probably one of the worst there wasn’t nearly enough space to move in.

“Hard right… Now.” Steve heard the sound of a bike approaching almost as soon as they left the overpass behind. He jumped to his feet in time to catch the shield Nat tossed his way. She swerved the bike to dodge a blast from Ultron. Steve stepped closer to bash the shield into Ultron’s face, effectively distracting him from Nat.

“Clint can you draw out the guards?” Now that he had the shield back fighting Ultron was suddenly much easier as he could block rather having to dodge most of the hits.

“Let’s find out.” Steve could hear the grin in Clint’s voice and instantly ducked under his shield. He dodged just in time to not get hit by the rain of bullets he could hear bouncing off of Ultron and hitting the truck.

Ultron’s eyes seemed to get brighter again for a second just before the two smaller Ultron bots shot out of the truck and up into the air. Steve was barely on his feet again before Ultron’s fists slammed into the shield, he just barely managed to wedge the shield into the truck’s top to avoid being tossed from the roof. He used the momentum to swing himself up and behind Ultron. For half a second he felt like he was back in Brooklyn facing off against someone over twice his size and clear as day he remembered the few times he’d actually done damage, it had usually been by knocking them over somehow. So he just lifted the shield up and ran towards Ultron knocking both of them off the truck. He had however completely misjudged just how far he’d knock them and they flew across a lane of traffic and into a passing train.

Steve rolled as he landed in the walkway of the train, lodging his shield between two seats to stop himself from sliding straight through and out of the other window. He looked up in time to see Ultron remove his hands from the floor of the train, leaving finger sized dents where they’d been.

“They’re coming back towards you Nat,” Clint’s voice over the comms distracted Steve just enough that he almost missed Ultron’s movement. It was only the serum enhanced reflexes that saved him from getting his head removed as Ultron’s hand hit his shoulder rather than his neck. Steve winced bringing his knee up and catching Ultron in his gut. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it now.”

“Alright I’m going in. Cap, think you can keep him occupied?” Steve shifted around jumping up and catching the bars that ran along the top of the train. He swung and caught Ultron in the chest with his feet catapulting him across the train.

“What do you think I’ve been doing exactly?” He muttered into the comms as Ultron stood up. He landed a hit on the side of Ultron’s head before he had a chance to think.

“Okay,” Clint’s voice sounded confused and Steve did his best to ignore them as he grabbed his shield and blocked a swing from Ultron. “Package is airborne, I’ve got a clear shot.”

“Negative. I’m still in the truck.” Nat responded before Steve had a chance to remind Clint that they were not shooting this thing. He managed to embed his shield in Ultron’s arm.

“What the hell are you-?”

“Just be ready, I’m sending the package to you.” Steve missed as Ultron chucked the shield and it flew out one of the windows and got stuck in the side of a building. When Steve looked again he assumed they’d passed it, he couldn’t see the shield anymore.

“How do you want me to take it?” Ultron’s face had transformed from his earlier annoyance to a snarl that seemed like a gash opened in his face. It was wide enough that Steve noticed Ultron hadn’t added teeth to his almost human appearance. Steve was forced to block the next hit with his arm and yeah he was definitely going to be bruised tomorrow.

“You might regret asking that.” Steve just managed to get an arm around Ultron’s head but then the train turned and he slipped on something.

The next thing he noticed was the roof as his back his the floor of the train. He twisted and jumped up in time to see a blur rush past him and Ultron’s head snapped to the side with enough force that had he been human it would have snapped his neck. As it was he just twisted it back into place with a snap. Then the blur slowed and the kid standing there had to be the enhanced they’d fought before, Pietro was this one’s name. Ultron stepped towards him and then the girl was beside him and the bars Steve had grabbed onto earlier snapped themselves off the roof and made an X in front of the two of them. This was, apparently, enough to stop Ultron in his tracks.

“Please don’t.” Ultron’s voice sounded different, almost like there was static in it.

“What choice do we have?” Wanda stepped forward just a little, in between her brother and the bars that still glowed faintly red. Something in the tone of her voice and the set of her shoulders suddenly reminded Steve so strongly of the past he was trying to forget that he had to grab onto a bar to stay standing. The noise was enough that Ultron turned, noticing him again.

Then he straightened, like he’d just heard something. His hand was up and the blast fired so quick Steve didn’t even notice it until it past him, straight into the back of the driver. Before Steve had a chance to react Ultron took off out of the train, grabbed a switched on the side of the track as he did so and Steve heard the sound of tracks sliding.

“I lost him, he’s headed your way.” Steve called out over the comms as he rushed to the train driver. Ultron’s blast had gone straight through the man's chest and fried all the controls on the train. All Steve could say for the driver was that it had been quick. As they rushed towards the dead end sign Steve could see not twenty feet away he wasn’t certain he could say the same for them or the other passengers on the train.

“Nat we gotta go!” Clint’s voice over the comms actually sounded worried.

Steve could feel more than see the twins come to stand behind him. He turned slightly to look at them and Pietro held out his shield. “We thought you might want this.”

There was a surprised noise over the comms and then Clint’s voice filled Steve’s ears. “Nat! Capt. do you see Nat?”

“If you have the package get it to Stark, go!” Steve stared in horror as the dead end revealed itself to be a building, at the very least it looked abandoned. He lifted the shield as the train shot off the end of the tracks and through the building. He felt something hit his shield and his feet skidded back a foot or two but it was like there was a cushion behind him. Then there was a blast of fresh air through the newly opened front window. Through the building they’d come out onto a street but there were more people ahead of them then he’d like. He looked back and the civilians, now huddled as far back in the train car as they could get, all seemed to have survived alright.

“Do you have eyes on Nat!?” Clint’s repeated question was in his ears as the twins looked at him their expressions torn between fear and determination.

“Go!” He turned his head slightly to snap into the comms and then turned it off, at this point he didn’t need anyone talking in his ears and distracting him. He turned back to the twins, they hadn’t left yet so he might as well use their power. He look at Wanda first, the train was the first priority. “Can you stop this thing?”

“I can try.” She looked away from him and down at the floor, a red mist creeping from her fingers.

“There are civilian's in our path.” His eyes rested on Pietro next and the boy nodded blurring as he shot out one of the windows. Steve turned watching as in front of them a silver blur moved each person out of the way and they gradually slowed. They came to a stop just in front of a slightly less abandoned looking building.

Wanda bolted out of the train before Steve even had a chance to turn around and as he stepped out he realized they hadn’t gone far. Pietro was sitting on a nearby box, breathing heavily, and Wanda stood over him one hand resting on his shoulder and worry clear on her face.

“I’m fine, really sister.” Regardless as to what he said Pietro was leaning towards her. “Just need a minute.”

“I am very tempted to not give you one.” Steve frowned at the two of them as he walked over but he felt it soften as they looked at him, they looked so very much like children.

“The cradle!” Wanda said taking a step forward and staring at him. “Did you get it?”

Steve nodded and Wanda sighed relief clear on her face, until Steve spoke at least. “Stark will take care of it.”

“No he won’t.” Her fingers tapped against her leg a red glow starting on them until her brother took her hand in his.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Steve said the frown back on his face. “Stark’s not crazy.”

“I’ve been inside his mind.” Wanda said the words slowly, as if worried he might not understand. “He is terrified of the future he worries he will create.”

“Stark?” Steve turned away from them bringing the comms in his helmet back to life and trying to reach Tony, or anyone really. “Come in Stark? Anyone on the comms at all?”

“Ultron can’t tell the difference between saving the world and holding it captive.” Her voice was insistent even without being able to see her face. “Where do you think he gets that from?”

“Stark knows how to make this right.” Steve said. As he turned back to face the twins he tried to pretend it didn’t sound fake even to his own ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Shitscram everyone I hope y'all enjoy my terrible late night editing skillz


	9. Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who's that Red Guy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to Lindy (Rooish on tumblr) for all the editing help!!

The lab was a strange mix of darker and lighter than usual; lights that had been broken in Ultron’s original attack still left unfixed while the rest were lit up. It left patches of shadows among the clinical brightness Tony was used to in his lab. The cradle sat dead center of the room under one of the unbroken lights, it shone like a spotlight. The array of monitors Tony worked on were spread in a large semi-circle around the cradle. Tony moved around the cradle and between computers helping Clint hook the cradle up to them while Bruce looked from monitor to monitor watching the status of whatever was currently inside the cradle. They’d worked largely in tense silence since Clint had arrived with the cradle, and without Natasha or Steve. Both Tony and Clint stopped every few minutes to look at their phone for updates on either one of their missing companions.

“Anything on Nat?” Bruce asked looking between Tony and Clint.

“No.” Tony shook his head looking at the cradle, hoping his face looked more annoyed than interested to Clint. “She’s got to be alive though or Ultron would rub our faces in it.”

“Well this is sealed up, I can’t see a way in.” Clint gestured at the cradle.

“We’ll need to access the program.” Bruce nodded frowning at Clint before looking back at the cradle. “Break it down from within.”

“Any chance Nat will try to contact you Clint?” Tony said, his next move would be easier if Clint was somewhere else, preferably with his hearing aids off or tuned to something other than what was going on in the lab. “Back road channels? Old school spy stuff?”

“There are some nets I can cast.” He nodded wandering off towards the stairs, to the lab below them no doubt. It had a glass ceiling but as far as Tony knew Clint wouldn’t be able to hear them, just see them. “Yeah I’ll find her.”

There was a moment of quiet while Clint walked away before Bruce spoke and started moving towards one of the computers. “I can work on tissue degeneration if you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted.”

“Yeah about that.-”

“No.” Bruce turned back to look at Tony. Tony couldn’t tell if his look was anger or fear but it was definitely laced with irritation.

“You have to trust me on this one.” Tony spread his hands.

“Kind of don’t.”

“Our Ally? The one who was protecting the military’s nuclear codes?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the tablet, flicking it once so that Jarvis’s visible form appeared. “I found him.”

“Hello Dr. Banner.” Jarvis’s visible form inclined towards Bruce in his version of a nod.

“Ultron didn’t go after Jarvis because he was angry, he went after him because he was scared.” His hands were flying all over the place in gestures that were half picked up from Clint and half all his own. “So Jarvis went underground, scattered, dumped his memory, but not his protocols. He didn’t even know he was in there until I pieced him together again.”

Bruce let out the longest sigh Tony’d ever heard. “You want me to help you put Jarvis in this thing?”

“No! Of course not.” Tony shook his head, when Bruce said it like that it sounded bad. “I want to help you put Jarvis in this thing!”

The sigh that followed Tony’s words was even longer than the last one and Bruce rubbed at his forehead.

“We’re out of my field here,” Tony tried for a charming smile taking a step towards Bruce, he really couldn’t do this without him. “You know bio-organics better than anyone.”

“And you assume that Jarvis’s operational matrix will beat Ultron’s?” Bruce was watching Tony from under the fingers that were still rubbing at his forehead.

“Jarvis has been beating him all this time without even knowing it.” He took another step towards Bruce, grinning now because questions weren’t a refusal. “This is the opportunity! We can create Ultron’s perfect self without the homicidal and controlling glitches he thinks are a winning personality!”

“For what it may be worth I think it is worth a shot.” Jarvis spoke up.

“I’m in a loop, I’m caught in a time loop.” Bruce said his hands dropping from his face as he stepped away from Tony and walked in a small circle, ending up nearly where he’d started, if a bit further from Tony. “This is exactly where it all went wrong last time.”

“That’s what everyone else is going to say, I know, hell they’re probably already saying it. We’re mad scientist you and me, we gotta own it.” Tony stepped to Bruce’s side and slung his arm around his shoulders. He pointed towards the cradle with his free hand. “This isn’t a loop, it’s the end of the line.”

“Okay fine.” Bruce sighed stepping away from Tony and pointing at Jarvis. “But just so you know it’s him I trust, not you.”

“Yeah, whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.” Tony grinned bouncing over to his computers, now all he had to do was upload Jarvis’s schematic, the hard part was done.

Somewhere between hours one and two Tony realized that getting Bruce to agree was maybe not the hardest part of this whole thing. At least according to the error messages on the screen it wasn’t. He snarled expletives in Latin as he rearranged one of the lines of code.

“This framework isn’t compatible.” Tony muttered running a hand through his hair as the error message flared across the screen once again.

“The genetic coding is at 97%. You have to upload that schematic in the next three minutes.” Bruce’s voice was followed by footsteps but Tony’s attention was fixed on the screen.

“I’m only going to say this once.” Steve’s voice was unmistakable, as was his annoyance.

“Or you could not?” Tony suggested, mostly under his breath while adjusting the coding.

“Shut it down.” Clearly not was not an option Steve was willing to take.

“Let’s go with no.” Tony shrugged hitting the upload button and looking up at Steve while the bar crawled across the screen. Steve was standing just inside the entryway, flanked by the twins that they’d spent the better part of the week fighting.

“You don’t know what you’re doing.” Steve was looking particularly like Captain America at the moment and Tony very much wanted to knock that look off his face.

“And you do?” He settled for snorting instead.

“How do we know she’s not inside your head?” Bruce gestured to Wanda and if Tony was being honest, the idea hadn’t even occurred to him until Bruce said it. Now that it had he took another look at Steve, trying to decide if he looked in control or not. Steve looked at him and in the seconds they made eye contact Tony was certain Steve was in control, which hurt a little as apparently he trusted Tony even less than Bruce did.

“I know you are angry.” Wanda said, sounding almost apologetic as she stepped towards Bruce.

“Oh, we are way past that.” Banner stepped towards her but Tony’s concentration was grabbed by the screen as the error message flashed across the screen again.

He cursed quietly and went back to typing, trying to figure out what to fix, he pressed the upload button again just as he heard a sound like wind in a canyon and the screen went black.

“No, no, no, go on.” The kid, the fast one, waved a hand towards Bruce and Steve. If looks could kill Tony wasn’t honestly sure which of the three of them would have killed the kid first. “You were saying?”

Before anyone had a chance to say anything to him there was the sound of shattering glass and an arrow shot up and embedded itself in the ceiling.

“I’m rerouting the upload.” Tony muttered moving around the now powered down screen to one closer to the cradle that the kid hadn’t thought to unplug. It only took a second to check that the upload was still going, which was just about as long as Tony got before Steve’s shield smashed through the screen, nearly taking off his nose in the process. Tony snarled calling his glove to his hand and shooting a stunner at Steve.

Steve lunged towards him and Tony dodged as Bruce wrapped an arm around Wanda. He shoved Steve away from him just as Wanda did the same to Bruce. Steve was about to move again when glass rained around them, Tony made a note to himself to put in proper floors and ceilings, the glass was not practical in this line of work. He looked up in time to see Thor land on top of the cradle. “Where the fuck have you been?”

“Wait!” Bruce shouted as Thor’s hammer started to spark but Thor didn’t designate to answer either of them before slamming his hammer down onto the cradle and super charging the whole thing.

Tony jumped back to avoid being fried as lighting jumped from the cradle to the computers and back again. Thor stepped away from the cradle and the lightning fizzled out leaving silence in its wake. Before anyone had a chance to say or do anything the top of the cradle shot off and a red dude launched himself out of the cradle and directly into Thor. Thor stepped aside letting his momentum carry him over the railing. He stopped just before hitting the window, floating nearly six feet off the ground and staring out across New York City.

Tony was the first one down the stairs, trying to assess the threat, but Thor beat him to the landing by going straight over the rail. Thor floated just behind the red guy holding a hand up towards the others. Tony stopped on the last step while everyone else past him, Steve stood at the edge where he could see everyone, the two kids stood just behind Thor, Bruce stood not quite two steps in front of the stairs, and Tony could feet Clint standing not far behind him.

“I am sorry, that was… Odd.” The red guy started speaking and Tony felt something catch in his chest. He sounded just like Jarvis. He turned towards them floating towards Thor, clothes appearing over his skin as he did so, and landing softly, Thor landed when he did. He looked at Thor for a second before a cape materialized behind his shoulders. “Thank you.”

Thor let out a sigh that sounded almost relieved to Tony’s ears.

“Thor?” Steve stepped forward, suddenly commanding the attention of everyone in the room. He waved a hand towards the red guy. “You helped create this?”

“I had a vision, Ultron creating something terrible. Using that.” Thor pointed at the yellow stone embedded in the red guy’s forehead.

“Vision, I like that.” The red guy nodded. “A good name.”

“The gem?” Bruce asked stepping forward frowning slightly as he looked between Vision and Thor.

“It’s called the mind stone.” Thor nodded turning away from Vision to address everyone else. “It is one of 6 infinity stones, the greatest power in the verse and unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.”

Steve crossed his arms irritation clear in the lines of his body. “Then why-”

“Because Stark is right.” Thor said it with such conviction that even Tony blinked, it was not a line he would have expected from Thor.

“Oh it’s definitely the end times…” Bruce muttered and Tony was too busy agreeing with him to be offended.

Thor stepped forward, clearly aware that everyone was waiting on an explanation. “The avengers can’t defeat Ultron.”

“Not alone.” Vision floated forwards to stand beside Thor again.

“Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?” Steve said his eyes narrowing as he looked between Tony and Thor.

There was a moment of silence before Tony realized this was his queue to talk and he stepped down off the stairs to stand beside Bruce. “We reconfigured Jarvis’s Matrix to create something new.”

“I’m getting pretty tired of new.” Steve frowned at Tony and Bruce before turning to fix his gaze on Vision.

“You think I am a child of Ultron?” Vision looked genuinely perplexed by the thought.

“You think you’re not?” Steve crossed his arms and Tony didn’t need to see his face to know that he had his ‘calling your bullshit’ face on.

“Perhaps.” Vision rolled his shoulders in what could almost pass as a shrug. “But I am not Ultron, I am not Jarvis, I’m….”

There was a pause where Vision looked perplexed and everyone waited, then the girl stepped forward and Tony almost jumped, he’d forgotten the twins were even there. “I looked into your head and saw subjection.”

Vision turned his whole body when he looked at her, head tilted for a moment. “Look again.”

“How would the rest of us know she’s not lying?” Clint’s arms were crossed and he had that frown on his face that always made Tony believe he was smarter than he let on. “That she isn’t still working with Ultron.”

“Their powers, the visions and horrors she put in our heads, and Ultron himself, they all come from the mind stone.” Thor interrupted pointing at the yellow gem on Vision’s forehead to underline his point. “And they are nothing compared to what it can unleash in the wrong hands but with it on our side-”

“But is it?” Steve snapped the words out his frown directed at Thor for a moment before he looked back at Vision. “Are you?”

A small frown emerged on Visions face and he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“Make it simple.” Steve snapped.

“Indulge us less brilliant folks.” Clint added leaning against the railing.

“I am on the side of life.” Vision said after a pause where he stood still enough it reminded Tony that he wasn’t just another super powered human. “Ultron is not, he wishes to control everything, and he will ruin humanity.”

“What’s he waiting for?” Tony stepped forward again and Vision’s gaze fixed on him.

“You, he is aware that the Avengers are not something he can control. You must be flushed out and removed for his plans to work.”

“Where?”

“Sokovia.” Clint answered before Vision could. “He’s got Nat there too.”

“If we’re wrong about you,” Bruce spoke directly to Vision for the first time. “If you’re actually everything Ultron created you to be?”

“What will you do?” Vision looked at Bruce and then at the room as a whole, continuing only when it was clear that no one had an answer. “I do not wish to kill Ultron, he is unique and he is in pain, but that pain in his mind is the reason for the iron control he wants over the whole earth, and so he must be destroyed. Every form he has, every trace of him on the internet, and we must act soon and together. Not one of us can do this without the others. Maybe I am a monster, maybe you are, but I do not think that is true. I am not the same as you and I am not what was intended but none of us are what was planned for us. So trust me or not we must leave now.”

Throughout Vision’s speech Tony had been so focused on his words he didn’t even notice what Vision’s body was doing until he was holding Thor’s hammer out towards him with the air of someone who didn’t know what that meant.

“Right.” Thor took the hammer from Vision and patted Tony on the shoulder on his way past. “Well done.”

“You have three minutes.” Steve said looking around at everyone. “Get what you need.”

“You two come with me.” Tony heard Clint say, no doubt addressing the twins. Tony however was already making his way towards the jet, calling his suit towards him as he did so. He stopped only for a second at one of his tables to grab one of his backup programs, Friday, for the suit as he no longer had Jarvis.

Tony doubted it was even a minute until he was standing in the entry of the jet wearing his entire suit with the exception of the helmet. Bruce joined him and was followed seconds later by Steve who was now dressed in his whole Capitan America get up. There was a pause before Steve spoke. “It’s going to be a hard fight.”

“Doubt we’ll all get through it.” Tony agreed quietly thinking of the number of places Ultron had been stealing from all at once. “If we leave even one of his bodies standing, we lose.”

“I’ve got no plans tomorrow night.” Steve said it in a tone that was meant to be joking but the slant of his shoulders said otherwise.

Bruce just shrugged and sighed, already closing himself off in preparation for the fighting.

“Well, I get first crack at the tin soldier himself.” Tony grinned trying, and likely failing, to lighten the mood. “I’m the one he’s waiting for after all.”

“That’s true.” Vision piped up as he walked past onto the jet, doing a better job than Tony of lightening the mood without even trying. “He hates you the most.”

“Let’s get going.” Steve nodded walking onto the jet as Clint and the twins showed up, all of them in the battle clothes Clint and Nat kept stashed all over the tower, though Wanda was still wearing her coat over the outfit. Once everyone was seating on the jet Steve started speaking again. The jet rumbled quietly as it took off. “Ultron has to know we’re coming, odds are we’re going to be heading right into heavy fire and while we signed up for that, the people of Sokovia didn’t. Our first priority will be getting them out, Clint will take point on that with the twins help. Tony you follow Vision, find Ultron’s main body and distract him. Bruce find Nat, get her out. I’ll help where ever I can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I'm starting to run slow on the updates, I've run out of buffer chapters X)


	10. It's my job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big battle, Ultron's plans vs the Avenger's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Biggest shout out ever to Lindy (rooish on tumblr) for being the best beta reader and keeping me motivated through this whole long as shit project!

Tony alternated between looking out the window and at Vision as the view of fields slowly then all at once giving way to buildings and streets as the jet flew towards and then over Sokovia. Steve was talking to the wonder twins and the rest of the Avengers in the background, going over the plan again, but Tony was waiting for Visions cue. The plan was for the jet to fly over in stealth mode so Tony and Vision could drop over off and buy time for everyone else to clear the civilians from the city. As they flew over though something about the city seemed off, not quite right. It wasn’t until Vision gave the signal and they were both dropping towards street level that Tony put his finger on it, there were almost no people. The city had been full to bursting last time they were there, full of people laughing and throwing rocks at the suits he’d sent to keep them safe.

“Friday, scan the city, compare it to the scans from last time I was here.” Tony frowned down at the city as they flew.

“What are you looking for?” Visions voice in Tony’s ear made him jump, or would have had they been somewhere other than midair.

“A confirmation for my hunch,” he said, following Vision through the city.

“There are significantly more cameras and many of the buildings have received electronic upgrades that are not dissimilar from the Avenger’s Tower,” Friday rattled off in Tony’s ear. “Ultron appears to be waiting in the church.”

“Huh.” Tony shifted towards the church and touched down. Vision drifted back up into the air, waiting in case Tony needed backup.

“Come to confess your sins?” Ultron’s voice came from inside of the church as Tony walked towards it.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged walking in and looking around the seemingly empty building. “How much time you got?”

“More than you.” This time Ultron’s voice was behind him and Tony whirled to see him landing in the center of the room. There was a pause as Tony stared at Ultron; he was bigger, like someone had tried to make it look like one of the legionaries had muscles, but it mostly just looked-

“Have you been juicing? A little vibranium cocktail?” Tony waved his hand around while he tried to think of the most suitable word. “You’re looking a little, I don’t want to say puffy, but that’s what’s coming to mind.”

“You’re stalling to move the people out of firing range.” Ultron tilted his head and there was a whirring sound that Tony couldn’t quite place.

“That’s the mission don’t you remember? Protect the people.” Tony shrugged watching Ultron for any movement that might indicate what he was trying to do.

“I’ve moved past that mission, a shield around the world remember?” Ultron waved a hand as if waving away flies. “This is where you and the Avengers end, this is peace in my time.”

Then the whole building shook and a pillar shot out of the ground. There were a few seconds of silence as the suit scanned the pillar and Tony stared at Ultron.

“The vibranium.” Friday’s voice in his ear made Tony twitch, though he wasn’t sure why he was surprised. “Function unclear.”

“You are not the only one who learned how to stall.” Ultron’s face split in a grin that was no less unsettling than his first one had been, for all that he now had an entire mouth to grin with. Then the light shifted as Ultron’s smaller bots started crawling into the building and flying in.

Vision shot down through the roof to land next to Tony, his eyes fixed on Ultron’s main body rather than on the numerous smaller Ultron bodies heading towards them.

“My vision, they really did take everything from me.” If Tony hadn’t known better he would have thought Ultron sounded almost sad.

“You set the terms,” Vision floated towards Ultron, one hand extended. “You can change them.”

Ultron launched himself at Vision but Vision was faster. They spun for a few seconds in mid air but when they stilled Vision’s fingers were dug into the side of Ultron’s head with enough force to dent it. Vision’s hands and eyes glowed with a blue light Tony remembered all too well; he took the chance to turn away and focus on taking out some of the smaller Ultron’s who’d come too close for his liking. All of the smaller ones shuddered to a halt suddenly, and Ultron let out a sound like an animal in pain but louder and more metallic. There was a sort of tired whir from outside and Tony looked up in time to see a camera outside of the church droop.

“You shut me out?” Ultron snarled shoving away a now non glowing Vision, who looked very much like he was low on power. “You think I care? You think it matters?” He shot down from where he and Vision had ended up to where the pillar was and smashed his hand against a button Tony hadn’t noticed was there. “You can’t stop all of me!”

The ground started shaking again and the top of the pillar opened up allowing another pillar to shoot upwards and through the roof to where Tony couldn’t see it.

“Friday?”

“He appears to be creating a rather large shield.”

All of Ultron’s bodies suddenly stood up, eyes glowing red, and started speaking. “Don’t you see the beauty of it? The inevitability? Purge me from the computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. I will protect this world from anything that might threaten it, you included.”

* * *

The catacombs under the hydra base had been cleared of pretty much any sign of occupation, from both Hydra and Ultron. The only sign Bruce could see that pointed to recent occupation was the lack of dust and how well-oiled most of the machinery was. Then he heard the rattling and ran towards it. By the time he got there Natasha was swearing under her breath in a language he didn’t know but suspected to be a long dead one and reaching for what appeared to be a file.

“Need a hand?” Bruce grinned knocking the file towards her as he walked over.

“Oh, I don’t need that if you’re here.” Natasha pointed across the room to what appeared to be a pile of fabric. “Pass me my stuff.”

Upon close inspection Bruce realized it was a coat thrown haphazardly over boots and a small rolled up packet. Natasha gestured for the packet when he stepped closer and out of it she pulled what looked like a collapsible baton right up until she pressed a button on the side of it. Then the thing started glowing blue and Bruce could feel the heat coming off of it from a half dozen steps away.

“Perfect.” Natasha grinned and jammed the whole thing into the lock, opening the gate with ease once the lock had melted sufficiently. Then she switched it off, stepped into her boots, and pulled the jacket on. She bent down to lace up the boots before speaking. “What’s the mission?”

“We don’t have to.” Natasha looked up at him with what could only be called confusion so he elaborated. “We’re just humans, we could leave, take the people out of here, and go with them somewhere safe.”

She finished lacing the boots and stood up to look at him before speaking. “Neither of us are just human Bruce, we both got knock-off super soldier serums, we’re both more able to fight these fights because of it.”

“Doesn’t mean we have to fight them, there’s no shame in not fighting.” Even as Bruce said it he knew even he didn’t believe it. “Especially if fighting means there’s a chance you’ll hurt innocent people.”

“Maybe not for you but I can’t let Clint run into a losing battle alone, never again. Besides the big guy knows how much you hate hurting people, he won’t kill anyone.” Natasha shrugged, an almost smile on her face. “Now I’ve got promises to keep, are you coming?”

Bruce stared at her and then down at his hands, he hardly even noticed she’d moved towards him until her almost smile was right in front of him.

“Bruce, let the big guy do his job.” Natasha put her hand on Bruce’s chest and pushed back lightly, watching as he stumbled and fell down one of the conveniently places giant holes in the floor, the Hulk launched himself out of the hole and made a soft annoyed noise as her. Before she could say anything the ground started to shake and she smiled. “Let’s go be heroes.”

Hulk roared and scooped her up, running back the way Bruce had no doubt come from.

* * *

“How in the world are we going to stop that thing, there’s still people in the city.” Tony muttered, partially to himself, partially to Friday as they circled the pillar, it rose straight in the air above the church and had just started unfurling. As it spread smaller shoots peeled off, it looked an awful lot like they’d become pillars themselves if left to their own devices. “Overload it, maybe. Or a magnetic field, but how would I get one so quickly…”

“The building, three streets from the church.” Tony looked at the building Friday had indicated, the rapidly unfurling shield had a spike aimed right for it. “It’s not clear, fourth floor on the right. Three life forms.”

Tony took off ignoring the pillar for a moment as he shot into the building. Three children were huddled in a closet, the two smaller ones clinging to the oldest. Tony knelt and gestured for them to come out. “Have you guys ever had dreams about flying?”

“Yeah…” One of the smaller ones nodded.

“Trust me the real this is so much better.” Tony smiled and tapped his helmet to pull the faceplate back. “Come on, I’ll fly you down to the evac area alright?”

It only took a few minutes to get the older one onto his back and the younger two into his arms. They shot out the window just as the ceiling collapsed under the weight of a vibranium pillar pushing towards the ground.

“We’ve got airborne, heading to the bridge.” Friday said in his ear, just loud enough Tony could hear her over the whooping of the kids in his arms.

“Capt., you’ve got incoming.” Tony called out over the comms as he landed near the edges of the city near a school bus and handed the younger two to the oldest. He watched to be sure the driver let them on before waving and shooting back towards the city.

“Incoming already came in.” Steve’s voice over the comms had that tone that meant he was about to make a speech and Tony rolled his eyes. “Stark you worry about getting that barrier down safely. The rest of us need to focus, get the rest of the civilians out and tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back, you get killed, walk it off.”

Tony changed his direction to head up towards the central pillar again. He needed to figure out how to stop it without dropping it. Even now if it just fell it would kill thousands and the shocks and sound wave from it would kill and injure who knows how many more.

* * *

Natasha jumped off of Hulk’s back as soon as they reached the city, sinking her batons into the closest bot she saw. She’d gotten her ear piece in just in time to hear Steve’s little speech, not that she’s assumed the mission would be anything other than protect the people stop the bad guys.

Then the speedy twin suddenly appeared in front of her and she nearly took his head off before she realized his hands were up. “Sorry about before, I was protecting my sister. We did not mean for anyone to get hurt.”

“The things we do, someone else almost always ends up getting hurt.” Natasha turned and sliced her baton through the power core of an Ultron who thought it could sneak up on her. “But I understand that, protecting your own.”

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m Pietro, Wanda is my twin. It’s always just been us and our family you know? We were never able to stay anywhere long.”

“Yeah Hill said, you’re Romani, yeah? You stayed here for a while.” Natasha gestured to the city around them, then a wave of Ultron’s interrupted them. Fighting with Pietro was interesting, she didn’t see him but shots from the Ultron bots passed around her hitting other Ultron’s instead, like they were constantly misfiring. She aimed her batons for the power cores, with the upgrades Tony had given them they sliced through the bots like they were paper. The last bot standing she shot an electrified net at, by the time it stopped twitching it was smoking.

In the quiet that followed the swarm Natasha heard panting and pulled an energy bar out of her pocket holding it out to Pietro. “If what they did to you was anything like what they did to us you’ll be starving after that show.”

“Thank you.” Pietro nodded taking the bar and looking at her with clear curiosity. “We stayed here because while they didn’t accept or understand us they also didn’t hate us for existing. It seemed almost like we’d be able to be safe.”

“And then Hydra came.”

Pietro nodded again and tucked the empty wrapper into his pocket. “And the war before them, and there was no one to protect this little country.”

“There is now, whether you consider it yours or not.” Natasha rested a hand on his shoulder for a moment before walking off. “I’m going find more robots to tear apart, I’m still pissed they put me in a cage, you coming?”

“Gotta protect what’s ours yeah?” Pietro grinned at her. He just barely waited for her answering nod before shooting off towards whatever fight he was aiming for.

* * *

Clint aimed his bow at the first Ultron that came towards him, not waiting to watch the arrow sink into its power core before turning to the next. He’d taken out nearly a dozen when he saw Wanda stumble as a handful of Ultron’s scrambled over a collapsed wall towards her. He tossed a device at them that Stark had said was basically like a hand grenade but with electricity instead of flames, grabbed Wanda around the waist, and all but threw both himself and her through the nearest doorway.

“How could I let this happen?” Wanda tugged herself away from him and dropped behind a crate, curling in on herself. “It’s all our fault.”

“Hey, look at me.” Clint knelt in front of her, hoping that the lull would last long enough to talk to her. “It’s your fault or Stark’s or Banner’s or Steve’s even, who cares? Right now we have to focus on not dying. Deal with who gets saddled with the blame later yeah?” He paused and waited until she nodded slightly. “Listen, I need to ask, are you up for this? I need to know because the city? It’s suddenly mostly metal and there’s a giant dome growing above it. Not to mention the army of robots outside and I’m going to go out there and fight them with a bow and arrow because that’s my job. If you stay here? That’s fine, no shame in knowing you weren’t made to fight, I’ll send your brother for you next time I see the kid. Right now it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you were before this. If you go out there, you’re an Avenger, and it becomes your job to save the world. We’ll deal with the rest after that.”

He watched as Wanda nodded again, slower this time, like she was thinking about it all. Good, this choice required a bit of thought, or it should anyway.

“Alright, good chat.” He nodded and headed back out the door just as a dozen more Ultron’s showed up. “Fuckin…”

Clint raised his bow pulling one of his explosive arrows out and shooting it into the center of the group. The explosion was doubled by the fact that it landed in one of the Ultron’s power cells. The two on either side of the one he’d hit fell as well, all three of them in a crumpled heap. The victory was short lived however as a three more Ultron’s jumped down from a nearby roof to land not two steps from the ones he’d just toasted. Just as he put another arrow to his bow he heard the doors behind him open.

Wanda had barely stepped through the doors before her hands went into the air, red mist seeped from her fingers and flew out in tendrils. It wrapped around the Ultron’s lifting them into the air four or five at a time and crushing them like they were made of clay. Clint didn’t even have time to shoot another arrow before she’d crushed them all. He nodded approvingly at her and clicked his comms to transmitting. “Alright we’re clear over here.”

“Not clear! Very not clear!” Capt.’s voice came through on the comms sounding like he was wrestling as he spoke.

“Alright coming your way.” Clint nodded and switched him comms back to just receiving. Just before he and Wanda started heading in that direction the other twin, Pietro, zipped in and scooped Wanda up.

“Keep up old man!” Pietro grinned at him before taking off again, presumably towards Capt.

“I’ve shot people for less, lucky for him his sister just saved my ass.” Clint muttered under his breath as he jogged after them. “No one would know though. ‘Last time I saw him an Ultron was sitting on him, he’ll be missed the quick little bastard. I miss him already.’”

* * *

The further the dome spread the more pillars it sent down towards the ground. Thor and Steve were currently following its movement and trying to evacuate people away from the edges. They’d set up a camp of sorts in a clearing by the markets where they were sending people to once they were out of danger. The evacuation, however, was made difficult by the fact that the Ultron’s seemed more interested in taking the Avengers out than saving lives.

They just managed to clear the section of field a pillar was heading down towards when a dozen of the Ultron’s showed up.

Steve tossed his shield, embedding it in the power core of one of them, then ran after it. He grabbed his shield and used the momentum of the falling Ultron to propel himself past the bots to stand beside Thor. Thor grinned at him and Steve just got his shield up in time to catch the lightning charged hit of Thor’s hammer. The lightning shot out, split and intensified by his shield, and took out most of the remaining Ultron’s.

Steve tossed his shield and grinned as it bounced off of one of the bots heads and embedded itself in the last one’s power core. Both of the Ultron’s crumbled a second later and Steve retrieved his shield.

He turned towards Thor just in time to see a larger Ultron, one of the discarded main bodies no doubt, grab Thor by the collar and shoot up and in towards the center of the city again. He could just barely hear his snarl. “You’re bothering me.”

“Ah, I’ve got shit timing apparently.” Widow’s voice was at his side and Steve turned grinning at her and saw her pointing towards another wave of Ultron’s that were coming down the pillar they’d just cleared the way for. “Here I was hoping you’d’ve finished with all this fuss by the time I got here.”

* * *

From where he was flying, just at the edge of the dome Tony could see the way it curved out from the church. It sloped up and was curving towards the sky, each pillar that dropped from it was longer than the last. It was almost elegant, too bad it was going to kill everyone if it managed to circle the globe.

“Could we reverse it? Make it pull itself back in?” Tony shot backwards again as another pillar started to lower from the section he was just underneath.

“The pillars are rigged to collapse, if you try to reverse the dome they’ll fall, crush everything for miles.” Tony couldn’t tell if Friday also sounded annoyed or if he was projecting.

“It’s entirely vibranium right?” Tony circled the pillar tapping it. “What if I get Thor to hit it with lightning?”

“It could fry whatever part he hit, maybe the whole of it.” He could definitely hear the ‘but’ in her voice before she got to it. “It would not be enough though, it would still collapse, and the resulting shock wave would kill everything for miles, not to mention anything caught under the collapsing dome.”

“What if we could hold it in?” Tony glared at the pillar, it was metal, he’d bet it could melt. “Keep the lightning trapped in the dome and the circuits?”

There was a moment of silence while Friday ran the numbers. “It would melt the city, high possibility of molten vibranium destroying the surrounding areas.”

“But it could work.”

“You would have to disconnect the dome from the ground.”

“Okay, step one.” Tony nodded circling back towards the city.

* * *

“The next wave is going to hit any moment.” Steve sighed glancing at Natasha, for a second he thought he saw Peggy beside her and he shook his head. It had been a long day. He tapped his comm unit. “Stark do you have anything?”

“Nothing great, a way to melt the city maybe, possibly devastating the whole area.” There was a crackle that sounded almost like Tony had sighed, or snarled maybe. “It’ll stop the dome at least, if everyone can get clear.”

“I asked for a solution not an escape plan.”

“What’s wrong with an escape plan? It’s the best chance we’ve got Capt., the dome is reaching further every second. It’ll be past city limits soon and it radius of destruction if it collapses on us will stretch for miles past the edges of it.”

“Not until everyone is safe.” Steve frowned looking back towards the center, towards the market where they’d been sending everyone.

“Everyone in here verse everyone out there?” Natasha came to stand beside him, shaking her head slightly. “There’s no contest Steve.”

“I’m not leaving if there’s even one civilian left in it.” He shook his head looking down at the ground. His failures just kept stacking these days.

“I didn’t say we should leave without them Steve.” Natasha shrugged. “There’s worse ways to go than in a fight.”

“Good to hear you haven’t lost that spirit Natasha. Honestly though, who thought turning out the lights was a good idea? Hard enough to drive these things in normal lighting.” Fury’s voice over the comm had them both whirling around, just in time to see what looked like smaller versions of the quinjet shooting towards them. One of them hovered in front of them and the door opened to reveal Fury grinning and Hill at the controls. “Nice right? Pulled them out of storage along with a couple of friends. They’re dusty but they’ll do the job.”

“Fury you son of a bitch.” Steve stared at the jet torn between annoyance and relief.

“Language Captain.” Tony’s voice startled a chuckle out of Steve.

“Come aboard Captain, I think you were saying something about civilians?” Hill called from inside the jet. “Where’d you stash them?”

“Back further into the city.” Steve pointed as he and Natasha climbed on board. “The market place.”

“Alright,” Hill tapped at her console and the jet shifted up and headed into the city. “Let’s go load them up boys.”

The jets landed near the market place, on the rubble of what used to be a dozen buildings. The market place appeared at first glance to be empty but as the jets finished touching down people scrambled out of the crevices they’d tucked themselves into.

Pietro skidded to a halt with Wanda near the jet Steve and Natasha were climbing out of. He walked up to Steve as the others went to gather civilians. “This is S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“This is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be.” Steve nodded looking around at the rescue effort, it almost looked like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Peggy talked about in her more lucid moments.

“This is not so bad.” Pietro nodded looking around again before heading toward the nearest knot of civilians.

Steve nodded looking between the huddle of civilians and the jets. “Alright, let’s load em up!”

He hadn’t even finished the sentence when many Ultron’s swarmed into the clearing, several of them making a beeline straight for the S.H.I.E.L.D jets. Just as they neared the jets a more sensibly coloured suite than either Ultron or Tony shot out of one of the jets. “Bad robots, this isn’t what you were made for.”

“Rhodes! Nice timing!” Natasha’s voice rang out over the comms and out of the corner of his eyes Steve could see her grinning where she was directing the civilians towards the jet.

“This is going to make a good story,” Rhodes chuckled as he swished around and between the Ultron’s.

Tony swooped in to join Rhodes fighting the Ultron’s near the jets. “Only if you live to tell it.”

“You think I can’t hold my own?” Rhodes said and Steve shook himself and headed towards the civilians, they had to get them on the jets asap.

* * *

“You think you’re saving people? From what?” Ultron’s voice creaked as he threw Thor through the roof of the church. “I hit a button and drop this dome and I’ll still survive to protect the world, I only lose a fraction of the population and I remove the Avenger’s threat.” He dove through the dome, landing on Thor and pinning him to the ground. “The math is sound.”

“I am Thor, Son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast…” Thor gasped out, his words getting weaker as Ultron’s fist pressed closer to his throat. “I am… running out of things to say, are you ready?”

There was an echoing clang and the pressure on Thor’s neck disappeared as Ultron shot across the room. He stood and grinned as Vision handed his hammer back.

“Thor we’ve got a plan!” Stark’s voice in his ear had Thor looking around, just in time to see the eyes of the Ultron that Vision had hit glow brightly before the power core fizzled and the whole thing collapsed fully.

“We’re out of time friend Stark.” Thor said trusting the feeling in his gut, a thought that solidified when Vision nodded. “They’re coming for the core.”

“Rhodey get the rest of these people on those jets.” Stark’s voice took on a tone of command Thor hadn’t realized he was capable of, he was almost impressed. “Avengers, get to the core and protect it.”

Within minutes of Stark’s order he landed beside Thor, letting go of a Steve who seemed suddenly very interested in one of the fallen Ultron bodies. Clint and Wanda were seconds behind them though they came through one of the doors rather than the roof. Pietro entered through another door and walked straight to his sister.

“You good?” He reached out towards her.

She clasped his hand and grinned, all teeth and confidence. “Yeah, you?”

Pietro nodded and they looked around as though trying to decide if everyone was here or not.

“Romanoff?” Stark tilted his head looking around. “You and Banner planning on joining everyone?”

“Calm down Shellhead not all of us can fly.” Widow’s voice got clearer as she went on and then Hulk was bending to get through one of the arches with her perched on his shoulder. She dropped down and jerked a thumb at Pietro. “And Hulk’s not quite as fast as this one.”

Hulk made a noise that sounded almost like annoyance and everyone turned to look at Stark as he seemed to be giving the orders now. “So what is your plan friend Stark?”

“For now?” Stark pointed at the button on the side of the pillar. “This, if Ultron touches it we lose.”

There was a sound like gears grinding and they all turned to see quite a large Ultron body floating just outside the church.

“This is the best you can do?” Thor asked gesturing towards the body with his hammer.

There was the sound like grinding gears again, evidently it Ultron’s version of laughter, and then a dozen dozen smaller Ultron bodies swarmed into the clear space behind the larger body.

“You had to ask…” Steve muttered from behind Thor.

“This is the best I can do.” Ultron spread his arms out to indicate all the bodies. “All of me against all of you. How can you possibly hope to stop me?”

There was a moment of silence and then Stark stepped forwards, standing at the front of the group. “Together.”

There was a soft smile on Steve’s face for just a second before Ultron let out the gear grinding laughter again and his face snapped back to looking like the focused soldier.

“Then you will die together.” Ultron snarled and the smaller bots rushed forward.

Steve lifted his shield smashing it into the first bot that ran towards him, sending it careening into another bot and then straight into a beam Tony shot out of his hand. Then Steve turned throwing his shield into the power core of a bot that was about to lunch at Nat, before she even had a chance to glance at the shield it was out of the bot and flying back towards Steve.

“Think quick.” Pietro slowed beside Steve just long enough to grin and point behind him before shooting off again. Steve caught his shield and turned, bringing it up just in time to catch a bot that had jumped towards his back.

He slammed the bot down and jumped back as Thor’s hammer flew down to crush the things power core. Then there were three bots around him and he lost track of the others as he fought them.

One of them lunged and he ducked twisting his shield to send the bot up and over him into one of the other. Taking the moment of reprieve to smash the edge of his shield through the power core of the third bot.

He ducked and rolled as the other two came at him from the edges and then he felt a sizzle in the air above him and looked back at the bots in time to see the dust that was left of them settle on the ground. Most of the other bots hadn’t fared any better. Of the lot that had surged forward, there were only a handful left; Vision was picking them off one or two at a time with some sort of energy beam that came out of his gem. Steve rubbed at his forehead, things just kept getting weirder.

Then the largest Ultron, who had been floating just outside of the church and watching the fight unfold up until now, shot towards Vision. His speed worked against him though and Vision shifted, caught Ultron’s arm, and spun like a top, tossing Ultron towards Hulk. Ultron just barely managed to stop himself from running directly into Hulk. “You know in hindsight-”

Hulk smashed Ultron between his fist and the wall of the church before he had a chance to finish the thought. This the smaller Ultron’s apparently took as a sign that it was time to skip town as the handful that were coming through the doors as backup peeled away from the fight and shot away.

“They’re trying to leave the city!” Thor called out, pointing to towards the ones that were flying away from the fight.

“We can’t let them, not even one.” Stark practically snarled it as he shot a blast from his hand into the power core of the Ultron nearest him.

“I’m on it. Oh no no no, did I say you could leave?” Rhodes’ voice over the comm made most of the avengers grin, they’d almost forgotten they had backup. Vision shot off after the Ultron’s as backup for their backup.

There was a moment of quiet after Vision left and the last of the nearby Ultron’s fell to the ground. Then Steve stepped forwards, towards the center of the church where everyone could see him. “We have to move out, even I can tell that the air is getting toxic under this dome. Everyone get to the jets, I’ll do a last sweep for stragglers.” A few of them nodded and Steve took off.

“The core?” Clint asked looking around at those who were left now that both Steve and Vision had left the building.

“I’ll protect it.” Wanda straightened her back and looked at Clint with a nod. “It’s my job.”

Clint nodded back, a proud look on his face before he turned and caught Natasha’s eyes. “Nat, let’s go.”

She didn’t say anything, just nodded and followed him out. The left through the opposite side as Steve had, intending to do a sweep of their own on the way to the jets. Tony shot out the roof again, those doing the sweeps could use eyes in the sky.

“Go get the people onto the jets.” Wanda frowned at Pietro when he didn’t follow the others out of the building.

“I am not going to leave you here!” Pietro frowned stepping towards Wanda, who was now standing on the raised area of the church right next to the button.

“I can handle this.” Wanda waved a hand around the church. “Come back for me once everyone else is out understand?”

Pietro frowned making an irritable noise under his breath.

“Pietro.” Wanda stepped closer to him a small smile on her face. “You understand?”

“You know I’m 12 minutes older than you.” Pietro sighed but started walking towards one of the entrances to the church.

“Go.” Wanda laughed going back to the button just as more Ultron bots headed into the church.

Pietro nodded and took off, everything seeming to freeze around him as he ran the bots he ran past them. When he got to the jets Hulk was pummeling a long crushed Ultron and making the nearby civilians nervous.

He was just trying to figure out what to do about Hulk when Clint and Natasha pulled up in a car.

“We don’t have much time Nat.” Clint gestured to Hulk as they got out.

“So get everyone’s asses on the jets.” Nat gestured to where Pietro was standing near the last few stragglers. As Clint rolled his eyes she headed over to Hulk. “Fight’s over big guy, we’re done now.”

* * *

Stark circled the bottom of the original pillar pleased to see that for some reason Ultron had mixed in some sort of plastic compound that coated any areas where the pillar met dirt, it had been the same on all the other pillars he’d seen. All he had to do was rework a few wires to direct the coating to cover the pillars entirely.

“Power levels running low.” Friday’s voice in his ear made him jump.

“Reroute everything, we get one shot at this.” Tony tapped over to the team comms. “Thor, Vision, I’m going to need you two back in the church.”

“Is this the last of them?” Thor spoke as Tony started charging his gloves, he and Thor would have to hit this thing from both sides at the same time.

“Yeah, everyone else is already on route out.” Tony could hear the nod in Steve’s voice.

He swapped his comms so just Thor and Vision could hear him. “You know if this works there’s still a chance we don’t get out.”

“Maybe not.” Thor didn’t sound as upset about that as Tony had thought he would.

* * *

“My son!” The lady tugged on Clint’s sleeve like a child and his first instinct was to bend down despite them being eye level. She pointed across the open space to where Clint could just see a head of hair hiding in a lowered staircase. “Please, my son!”

“I’ll get him.” Clint patted her arm and jumped off the jet. As he was running he saw another jet out of the corner of his eye, this one was smaller than the ones they had, and designed for fighting. He glanced over and saw Ultron, one of the larger vibranium models, in the pilot’s seat. Clint skidded to a halt beside the boy and picked him up. “Come on kiddo, that’s our signal to get out of here.”

Just as he stood up he heard the sound of guns shooting and dropped down, curling himself around the kid, between him and the bullets he could see coming. He braced himself for pain, but instead he was met with a scraping sound. He looked up and blinked, to make sure he wasn’t imagining what he was seeing. Pietro had shoved a car in between him and the kid, and the bullets. He had not however managed to protect himself from them.

“You didn’t see that coming?” Pietro’s smirk was undercut a little by the blood dribbling out of his mouth. Clint caught him before he crumpled to the ground. As he carried Pietro and the boy back to the jet he saw Hulk carrying Nat and chasing Ultron’s jet as it shot out towards the edge of the dome.

* * *

Wanda wasn’t sure what surprised her more, the pain of dozens of bullets shredding through her or the odd wave of relief that she felt follow it. She screamed feeling her brother collapse as though he was herself, the red mist she had contained carefully spread out, wrecking everything in its path. Ultron’s bots fell in droves as she let the pain course through and out of her.

A crashing sound had her lifting her head up in time to see a larger vibranium Ultron struggling to stand up in a nearby bus and she stalked towards him the red mist shimmering around her.

Ultron turned towards her as she advanced, had he been human she might have mistaken the look on his face and the static in his voice for worry. “If you stay here you will die.”

“I just did. Do you want to know how it felt?” The smile on her face felt brittle as she stepped closer to him, reaching out with her mist as well as her hand, dragging his power core out of his chest and into her hand. She looked his straight in the eye as she crushed it. “It felt like that.”

There was a sound like distant thunder and Wanda spun back towards her post in time to see Thor land and one of Ultron’s bots that she’d taken for dead press the button.

“Thor! On my mark!” Wanda could hear Tony in her comms but he sounded distant, unreal. “Now!”

“You can’t stay here, you’re still needed.” Vision landed on the bus, catching and cradling Wanda as she crumbled. Whether it was from the air or the stress he couldn’t tell.

He looked back at where Thor was channeling lighting into the core and lifted himself and Wanda up, it was time to leave. As he flew towards the helicarrier that was hovering out past where the dome had gotten to he could see jets landing on it and hear the dome melting behind him. He landed on the carrier next to a startled looking Natasha and handed her Wanda. “She is weak.”

When Natasha nodded he lifted off again, he might not be one of the Ultron’s but he could still feel them. He followed the feeling out past the helicarrier to the top of a hill that overlooked where the dome was now melting, covering what was left of the city in molten vibranium. In front of him was a severely damaged Ultron, one they’d no doubt assumed was going to die on impact. He felt himself smile as he looked at Ultron, a soft sort of smile, the kind meant to reassure. “You’re afraid?”

“Of you?” Ultron drew himself up as best he could with broken limbs and leaking oil, trying to sneer with portions of his face crushed flat.

“Of death.” Vision shook his head, a little amazed that he could hear Ultron’s emotions as easily as he had Wanda’s. “You’re the last.”

“You were supposed to be the last.” Ultron’s sneer melted into a frown, disappointment and anger rolling off of him in waves. “Stark asked for a Saviour and settled for a slave.”

“Well I suppose we were both disappointments.” Vision tilted his head and it crossed his mind to wish he could save Ultron somehow, without putting the rest of the world at stake.

The look on Ultron’s face was somewhere between annoyance and fury, the way his voice crackled made it clear he was offended. “You certainly were.”

“Humans are… odd, they think order and chaos are somehow opposites and they try and control what won’t be.” He paused waiting to see if Ultron would listen, if there’d be a break or a blip in Ultron’s anger. There wasn’t but he continued anyway. “But there is grace in their failings, I think you missed that.”

“They’re doomed.” Ultron waved a hand like he was brushing away a fly. “They’ll never survive without proper protection.”

“Yes.” Vision nodded, Ultron was not wrong in his thoughts, just his methods. “But a thing is not beautiful because it lasts, it’s a privilege to be among them.”

“You’re unbearably naive.” The sneer was back again, on the half of his face that could still manage expression.

“I was just born yesterday.” Vision shrugged and Ultron lunged at him the sneer giving way to a snarl and a wave of frustration. Vision closed narrowed his eyes and a beam of energy from the stone on his forehead vaporized Ultron. He sighed as he looked down at the dust that settled among the trees. It was a shame really, to lose something so unique.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go guys! Just the epilogue! We're nearly there, we've climbed almost the entire mountain


	11. Warm up laps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue, the ending, the wrap up, what are they all doing now!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always many thanks to Lindy (rooish on tumblr) I literally could not have written this without ur help my guy my dude my pal, I would have completely lost motivation about halfway through.

Natasha grinned at her tablet screen where Laura and Clint grinned back at her. Laura had her hair tied back and little Nathaniel in her lap and Clint kept looking awestruck at the two of them. “That’s the same expression you had for the last two Clint.”

“Never ceases to amaze me.” His voice was soft as he stroked the top of Nathaniel’s head and planted a kiss on Laura’s.

“You’re coming home soon yeah?” Laura fixed Natasha with a look that she’d long since learned meant it was in her best interests to just go along with whatever Laura said. “The kids miss you.”

“And you’re entirely impartial I’m sure.” Natasha laughed but she was nodding anyway. “I’ve just got a few things to finish up here, gotta help the Captain get these kids ready for field work.”

“Romanoff!” Fury called from the other side of the room. “Quit telling the dead our secrets and get a move on.”

“You heard the man love.” Laura nodded reaching for her tablet. “Go do your job.”

Natasha nodded, ending the call on her end and tucking the tablet into the pocket inside her jacket. A thought occurred to her as she walked over to where Fury was waiting for her. “Did you know what would happen?”

“With what?” Fury raised an eyebrow.

“When you brought us all together, the Avengers that is.” Natasha clarified as they headed through the halls of a shield base that, according to the files, didn’t exist.

“You never know with that sort of thing.” Fury shrugged. “You hope for the best, then make do with what you get.”

“Could have been worse.” Natasha chuckled, or her almost unnoticeable version of a chuckle anyway.

Fury nodded, a wry smile on his face. “Can’t argue that one.”

“Natasha? A moment.” Maria called from a doorway as Natasha and Fury walked past it. “I won’t keep her long Fury.”

“By all means. I’m not in charge of anything anymore remember?” Fury waved a hand and wandered off, tossing the words over his shoulder.

“Do you think he really believes that?” Natasha raised her eyebrows at his retreating back.

“Not for a second.” Maria stood up smiling at Natasha. “This will only take a moment though, I just want you to remind the Captain to talk to that therapist I told him about.”

Natasha tilted her head examining Maria.

“Don’t give me that, just remind him.” Maria crossed her arms. “Laura’s been on my case since the lot of you went to the farm.”

“Clint owes me a twenty.”

* * *

“Okay but if you put it in the elevator it would still go up right?” Tony pointed out with a shrug bumping his shoulder against Steve’s for back up.

“Right, elevator isn’t worthy.” Steve spread his hands and shrugged.

“Exactly, machines are different than humans.”

Thor just laughed shaking his head. “Different or not, if he can lift Mjölnir he can keep the infinity stone.”

Tony shrugged again as they walked out onto the lawn. “What’s up with these stones anyway?”

“That’s what I need to go find out, this is the fourth of six to appear recently.” Thor started swinging his hammer and both Steve and Tony stepped back. “I will let you know when I figure it out Friend Tony.”

The crack that sounded as the bridge appeared and Thor disappeared sounded like thunder, and as usual left a huge scorched circle of symbols in the grass.

“No respect for lawn maintenance that one.” Tony sighed as he looked at it, then when Steve didn’t respond he looked over at him. Steve looked lost in thought. Tony poked his cheek and raised an eyebrow at him. “Earth to Steve? What’s going on up there?”

“You ever think about doing it? What Clint and Nat are doing?” Steve looked at him and then frowned before Tony could speak. “The farm I mean, have your most important people hidden away from the rest of your life.”

“I think if I tried to hide Pepper away on a farm she’d kill me. We’re both happy doing what we’re doing.” Tony shrugged. “What about you? Thinking about settling down and retiring somewhere you can pretend is safe?”

“Any part of me that wanted that went into the ice all those years ago.” Steve shook his head. “Bruce is waiting for you though, and I’ve got a team to train up.”

“Good luck with them, you’re going to have your hands full.” Tony laughed and patted Steve’s shoulder turning and heading off towards his car. Bruce waved at Steve as Tony got into the driver’s seat.

“You going to retire then, someplace warm where you can pretend the big guy doesn’t exist?” Tony asked once he was settled and they were driving.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you to stop trying to provoke people while in small enclosed spaces?” Bruce sighed but didn’t manage to actually look bothered. “I doubt I could hide anywhere the lot of you wouldn’t be able to find me again.”

“Probably not.” Tony agreed and looked over to grin at him. “Your floor at the tower has a lock though, if you still want it?”

“It does have a nice lab too.” Bruce nodded picking at his sleeve rather than looking up at Tony.

“And a coffee bar on almost every floor.” He looked back at the road as he drove.

“No more Jarvis though…” His voice was quiet and he trailed off for a moment. “Are you going to try to remake him? Put him back into the tower?”

“I think it’s time to finally let Jarvis go, and it would be weird to hear Vision talking to me all the time.” Tony shrugged his grin getting softer. “Besides I’ve got a new project in mind for the tower.”

“As long as this one doesn’t try to take over the world.” Bruce smiled until Tony winced. “Too soon?”

“Some of us are still healing from that disaster.” Tony ran a hand through his hair.

“Pietro is hardly your fault Tony.” Bruce said quietly, reaching over to rest his hand on Tony’s arm. “Besides according to Nat he’s healing up just fine.”

* * *

“Just don’t ever do that to me again!” Wanda punched Pietro’s arm, now that he was healed enough for her to do so without him starting to bleed again.

“Hey, I’m still healing.” Pietro gestured at himself and the bandages he still insisted on wearing despite the fact that the bullet holes had been healed over for at least twenty four hours now. Laying in the bed with the white sheets and white blanket it looked almost like he was still seriously hurt. He reached out at took her hands when she looked down at the ground instead. “I’m fine Wanda, I promise.”

“I thought you were dead.” She twisted her hands so their fingers were twined together. “I felt you die.”

“Nah, just a lot of pain. I saved a kid though.” Pietro grinned at her, trying to coax a smile out of her. “And the old man.”

“Clint isn’t that old.” Wanda rolled her eyes.

“Compared to us he is, and slow.” He laughed squeezing her hands.

“Come on, we’re supposed to meet in the courtyard for training.” Wanda tugged on his hands a small smile on her face.

“Noooooo...” He drew the word out and pretended to collapse back into the bed. “I almost died, I’m too weak to train.”

That got a laugh out of her. Wanda dropped his hands and moved her hands to his hair ruffling it more than actually testing his temperature. “That excuse won’t last much longer for you brother, but I think I can convince the Captain this time.”

“You’re my favourite sister.” Pietro grinned up at her.

She just rolled her eyes again. “I’m your only sister.”

* * *

“So he’s still oblivious to the fact that your face does that embarrassing soft thing when he looks away then?” Natasha’s voice from beside him made Steve jump and he turned to glare at her. “Yeah I’ve been standing here for at least a full minutes watching you stare wistfully after Tony, that’s not going to work on me.”

Steve sighed as she turned and walked back towards the facility. He frowned as he looked up at the building, though honestly it shouldn’t come as a shock to him that S.H.I.E.L.D. had continued operating even after it turned out that half of them were actually Hydra. Hopefully they were checking their recruits better these days.

“Are you coming Captcicle?” Natasha called back over her shoulder doing that little silent laugh she did as he jogged to catch up. “Gods, and here they were worried I was going to be the one who was late to training. I at least had an important call.”

“Cooing at your new baby doesn’t usually qualify as an important call.” Steve rolled his eyes at her.

“Says the one who was wasting time staring after the boy he fancies.” She smirked at him and Steve felt his ears heat up.

He debated trying to deny it for at least ten seconds before he decided it wasn’t worth it. “How’d you even figure it out?”

“That you and Bruce are both wishing Tony wasn’t oblivious and are jealous every time he chooses one over the other to spend time with?” Natasha looked at him for a moment a small smirk on her face.

Steve rubbed at the back of his neck while she waited, apparently she felt like torturing him today. “…Yeah that.”

“I have eyes Steve.” She let out a huff of air that might have been a laugh before straightening her shoulders and putting on a serious face. Steve did the same as he realized they’d arrived at the courtyard. Then she leaned close and spoke quietly enough he’d be the only one who could hear her. “Also I told Hill I’d remind you to talk to that therapist she recommended, or to anyone really.”

He sighed but she walked away before he could answer her. As she got to the area where the rest of the group was they all turned to look at him and he felt his shoulders stiffen. He had to look down at his uniform to remind himself he wasn’t just the stage performer anymore. Then he looked up and grinned at everyone, which was made easier by the fact that Nat was standing in with the others and rolling her eyes. Sam was standing on one side of her in his newly repaired wings, and on the other side Wanda and Vision were attempting to look serious. Only one of the new recruits was missing. “Alright where’s Pietro, I could have sworn Dr. Cho said he’d be fine for practice by today.”

“He said he was feeling poorly, I promise I’ll drag him out of bed for the next one.” Wanda gave Steve a half smile that shot him back to his childhood for just a second until she shrugged. “He did almost die a couple weeks ago.”

“Fine, he needs to be at the next training though, we’ve got to get you lot into shape for fieldwork.” Steve gestured between himself and Natasha.

“Absolutely.” Natasha grinned at him and then around at the others, more teeth than warmth in it as usual. “Luckily for you lot it was Capt. here who prepared the training plan.”

“First things first,” Steve pointed at the track that went around the building. “Warm up laps.”

As everyone groaned Steve traded a grin with Sam, maybe this whole thing would work out fine after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take a moment here guys and thank everyone for reading this whole thing whether you've been waiting chapter to chapter or just read it all in one go thanks so much for taking the time to read my extremely self indulgent fic.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll update tags as needed  
> Also Shout out to Lindy (rooish on tumblr) for being a wonderful beta !


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